Alex O’Grady now leads the GB4 Championship from Fred Green in a weekend to forget for the Elite Motorsport driver. The Irish driver now stands 11 points ahead of Green, who in turn is five points ahead of Enzo Hallman. In the teams’ standings, Hillspeed have extended their advantage over Douglas Motorsport to 36 points.
After a swathe of track limits penalties hit the field post-qualifying, it was debut GB4 pole positions for Luke Hilton and Demitri Nolan for races one and two respectively. Jasser Iskander and Enzo Rujugiro formed a Fox Motorsport 1-2 for the reverse-grid race.
Hilton had a rocket start from pole position and quickly managed to pull away from Franciszek Cegielski on the opening lap. Behind, Archie Davies and Conor Grant came to blows at The Esses and got beached in the gravel, bringing out the safety car and handing Davies a five-place grid penalty.
The race restarted at the end of lap five and Hilton went unchallenged on his way to both his and ADM’s first GB4 victory. He finished ahead of Cegielski, who took his first GB4 podium, and Dayton Coulthard.
The Scottish driver got the better start off the line in race two and immediately took the lead from polesitter Nolan. The race again saw a lap two safety car deployment, this time for an incident at the final hairpin which saw Jordyn Martin tag teammate Thomas Ingram Hill’s rear-left corner and career into Green, spinning him out and forcing him to retire.
The safety car came in two laps later and Coulthard immediately built a gap as Nolan ran wide exiting the final hairpin. The American driver quickly fell into the clutches of Michael Koh and Josh McLean in the first corner, the latter locking up and running into the back of him, damaging his rear wing. Nolan ended up retiring from the race.
Two separate incidents further into the lap brought out another safety car, as Ingram Hill went into the barrier at McLean’s and Koh got beached in the gravel at Coppice.
Like Hilton in race one, Coulthard went unopposed once the race restarted and took his second victory of the year. Hilton, who started eighth, finished second ahead of Torrin Byrne, who climbed up from 17th on the grid.
Iskander got a good launch from pole in race three and Rujugiro was overtaken by both McLean and Koh through the first corner. For the third time in succession, there was an interruption on lap two. A multi-car incident at the final hairpin wiped out Coulthard, Grant, Matan Achituv, Emmilio Valentino Del Grosso, John O’Donnell and Connor Willis from the race, bringing out the red flag.
The field restarted from their original grid positions 20 minutes later. Iskander again held onto the lead and Rujugiro once again lost two positions, this time to McLean and Nolan.
The British driver took the lead from Iskander into the Melbourne hairpin and Nolan moved up to second at The Esses on the following lap. The safety car was then deployed for Romuald Bocquet and Byrne, who were beached in the gravel at McLean’s.
Racing resumed two laps later and Nolan immediately challenged McLean for the lead. The pair ran side by side until the Old Hairpin, where Nolan finally made his move stick. McLean didn’t let the pressure off his rival, however, and got back through on lap 10.
The move gave McLean his second consecutive reverse-grid victory of the year. Nolan took his first GB4 podium and Hilton finished third, having visited every podium position during the weekend.
The top 15 in the drivers’ standings
- Alex O’Grady (KMR), 184
- Fred Green (Elite), 173
- Enzo Hallman (Hillspeed), 168
- Luke Hilton (ADM), 146
- Dayton Coulthard (Douglas), 131
- Thomas Ingram Hill (Fortec), 113
- Torrin Byrne (Pace), 111
- Josh McLean (Pace), 106
- Franciszek Ciegelski (Fortec), 101
- Matan Achituv (Elite), 95
- Emmilio Valentino Del Grosso (Elite), 29
- Jason Smyth (Douglas), 81
- Connor Willis (Hillspeed), 80
- Archie Davies (Scorpio), 62
- Demitri Nolan (Hillspeed), 54
The teams’ standings
- Hillspeed, 282
- Douglas Motorsport, 246
- Pace Performance, 234
- Fortec Motorsports, 231
- KMR Sport, 215
- Elite Motorsport, 195
- Nitrous Competitions ADM Racing, 188
- Scorpio Motorsport, 116
- Arden Motorsport, 72
- Fox Motorsport, 61
- Idola Motorsport, 9
Main Image Credit: Jess Coulsell
