Jordan Albert came within a mere seven points of ending his debut season in BRDC Formula 4 with a top 10 championship placing for the SWR Caterham F1 Driver Development Programme Team during a challenging, and fairly unfortunate, 2014 finale at Snetterton over the weekend, 25th/26th October.

Bouncing back from a non-finish in the first race on Saturday, which left the 17-year-old a mountain to climb in races two and three, Albert battled from the back of the grid to record a top 15 finish in the second encounter on Sunday morning before then finishing in 13th place in race three.

Venezuela’s Diego Borrelli, meanwhile, also had to recover from a frustrating race one retirement but he produced a strong showing in both of Sunday’s rounds to secure a brace of hard-fought 14th place results. The first year racer ended his maiden season in 16th position in the championship, just eight points shy of the top 15 for the Chipping Norton squad.

“It’s been a character-building sort of weekend unfortunately”, said SWR Caterham team owner Sean Walkinshaw, “Race one set the tone with DNFs for Jordan and Diego, we were on the back foot from the start really. It’s frustrating we couldn’t end the season how we wanted, but both guys have improved massively over the course of the year.

“Jordan has come on so much, he’s a much better driver now – as his recent results before this weekend have shown – and we’re confident he has a good shout of a strong run in the Winter Series next month. Diego’s learning curve was pretty steep this year, but he’s done a great job and his racecraft and pace have definitely improved. Both guys have been a real pleasure to work with too.”

Annoyingly, the final weekend didn’t get off to the start anyone wanted in the first race. Beginning round 22 from 10th on the grid, Albert moved up into ninth place on lap one but on the second tour a tangle with Will Palmer at Montreal Hairpin resulted in retirement.

Incredibly, things weren’t any better for Borrelli who was forced out of the race on lap one after being hit from behind by the car of Rodrigo Fonseca – the Mexican having already made contact with another rival prior to the secondary shunt.

With the race one result determining the grid for round 23, the SWR Caterham team-mates had a huge amount of hard work ahead on Sunday. Borrelli lined-up in 16th position on the grid for race two with Albert in 18th place.

At the start, Albert made a good launch to move into the top 16 on the run into Riches but he was then held out wide at the hairpin as a couple of cars made contact and so dropped back behind his team-mate.

Into lap two, Borrelli held 15th position with Albert in 16th place and they remained in that order throughout. The gap fluctuated on several occasions, Albert closing in but then dropping back after a couple of moments. In the end, Borrelli finished in 14th position with Albert rounding out the top 15.

For the last race of the season Albert started on the fifth row in 10th position and although nudged back to 13th place on the opening lap, he maintained his composure and on lap three managed to move into the top 12.

Closing up behind Fonseca and Connor Jupp ahead, the intensity of the three-way battle increased as the race neared its conclusion and into Riches on lap nine Albert produced a great pass to take 11th place from the Mexican.

Although edged back to 12th position on the exit, the SWR Caterham racer was determined to return the favour and at the start of the final tour, lap 10, he darted to the outside at Riches instead to try and produce a more fruitful outcome. Again losing out, slipping to 13th place, he retook 12th position through the infield but on the drag to the finish he was edged back to 13th by a mere 0.082 seconds.

Borrelli had a long race ahead from 18th on the grid but the Venezuelan made good early progress, moving into 17th on lap one and then taking 16th place from Michael Claessens on lap three. Enjoying a strong finish to the race, Borrelli sliced his way through into 14th position over the final couple of laps at the expense of Tom Bale and Alfredo Zabalza.

Attention now turns to the upcoming Winter Series for BRDC Formula 4 which will get underway over the weekend 8th/9th November at Snetterton 300 Circuit and then conclude a fortnight later at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in Kent. Series front-runner Albert and Mexican newcomer Fernando Urrutia have so far signed deals with SWR Caterham for the eight-race championship.

Final 2014 BRDC Formula 4 Championship driver standings:

11th Jordan Albert, 226pts; 16th Diego Borrelli, 128pts; 20th Nicolas Beer, 87pts; 23rd Alex Palou, 48pts