Slater heads GB3 Championship standings after stunning Silverstone double
Hillspeed’s Freddie Slater maintained his early GB3 Championship lead with another stunning victory on Sunday at Silverstone. From pole position, the British driver led every lap of the second contest, and was on course to win by over 10 seconds, only for a late safety car to wipe out his advantage.
Meanwhile, series returnee Will Macintyre claimed his first win of the year for Elite Motorsport in the reverse grid final race. Slater holds a 15-point lead at the top of the standings over JHR’s Noah Lisle, with Nikita Johnson third for Hitech after a strong weekend of his own.
Race two
Starting from pole position, secured in the second part of qualifying on Saturday, Slater was again untroubled but his aspirations of an early big lead were wiped out by a safety car appearance.
When racing resumed, Slater immediately put himself out of touching distance of his rivals, and marched into the distance, stretching his lead to almost 10 seconds until the safety car made another appearance following a tangle between Keanu Al Azhari and Dion Gowda, with the latter penalised for the incident.
Lisle claimed second again but had to defend hard in the latter stages from Johnson, who took third place, with the Rodin Motorsport duo of Gianmarco Pradel and Alex Ninovic also joining the fight late on. Their teammate Abbi Pulling claimed another top-six finish as the reigning F1 Academy champion continued her strong start to life in GB3.
Race three
The first reverse grid race of the season produced drama aplenty, with the fastest 12 drivers from qualifying reversed on the starting grid. Macintyre blasted into an early lead from second on the grid, and held the position despite two further safety car appearances.
The early title protagonists all hit drama though, with Lisle careering off the road at Copse on lap one after contact, while Pulling was also wiped out early on after contact with Gowda. Later on, Slater, who had fought his way up to seventh had contact with Johnson, dropping both down the order to 13th and 11th respectively in the final classification, with their spill at Luffield also wiping out Pradel.
Through it all, Macintyre kept his cool to claim his fourth GB3 win with Al Azhari second on the road but demoted to sixth post-race after picking up a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits. That promoted Xcel Motorsport’s Patrick Heuzenroeder to second and JHR’s Kai Daryanani to third.
Hillspeed’s Hiyu Yamakoshi and Argenti with Prema’s Lucas Fluxa were fourth and fifth ahead of the demoted Al Azhari. The latter's teammate Deagen Fairclough meanwhile, charged from 25th and last on the grid after an overnight chassis change, to seventh in the final classification.
GB3 action resumes at Zandvoort, home of the Dutch Grand Prix, on 17/18 May.
Race two winner Slater said: “We made a slight improvement overnight and I think that really paid off. The win is slightly different today as the track had different conditions. It's very dirty out there offline especially, I think some people dropped some oil in the race before in the Ginettas so it was quite one-line and it was quite difficult. Overall really positive, unfortunate about the safety car, but overall a positive race.”
Race three winner Macintyre said: “I made up positions in race one. An issue in race two meant we stalled on the grid, but we knew we’d have the pace in this one. We’ll take the win, we’ll take the points and move on to round two. After the first lap I definitely was like 'woah, okay,' but after that I had a really good safety car restart and just from then on I went at it. It was an interesting first lap.”
GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, race two top-six result:
1. Freddie Slater, Hillspeed, 12 laps
2. Noah Lisle, JHR Developments, +0.747s
3. Nikita Johnson, Hitech TGR, +2.370s
4. Gianmarco Pradel, Rodin Motorsport, +2.590s
5. Alex Ninovic, Rodin Motorsport, +3.010s
6. Abbi Pulling, Rodin Motorsport, +3.869s
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GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, race three top-six result:
1. Will Macintyre, Elite Motorsport, 11 laps
2. Patrick Heuzenroeder, Xcel Motorsport, +3.943s
3. Kai Daryanani, JHR Developments, +5.974s
4. Hiyu Yamakoshi, Hillspeed, 6.485s
5. Lucas Fluxa, Argenti with Prema, +7.967s
6. Keanu Al Azhari, Hitech TGR, +8.057s
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GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Drivers' standings after race three of 24:
1. Freddie Slater, Hillspeed, 73pts
2. Noah Lisle, JHR Developments, 58pts
3. Nikita Johnson, Hitech TGR, 46pts
4. Gianmarco Pradel, Rodin Motorsport, 45pts
5. Patrick Heuzenroeder, Xcel Motorsport, 42pts
6. Alex Ninovic, Rodin Motorsport, 40pts
Click here for full standings
GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Teams' standings after race three of 24:
1. Hillspeed, 112pts
2. JHR Developments, 91pts
3. Rodin Motorsport, 85pts
4. Hitech TGR, 75pts
5. Xcel Motorsport, 60pts
6. Argenti with Prema, 53pts
Click here for full standings
For more championship information, visit www.gb-3.net.