Granfors grabs the initiative in GB3 title race
SILVERSTONE BRSCC 7-8 MAY
Fortec Motorsports’s Joel Granfors moved to the top of the GB3 Championship standings at Silverstone, as three different drivers scored maiden series triumphs.
Granfors continued his strong pace from last month’s Oulton Park season-opener by taking a double pole on the Grand Prix circuit. He converted the first of those into the lead, pulling out an early two-second cushion over Hitech GP’S Luke Browning, who had passed Elite Motorsport’s Tom Lebbon on the opening lap. Browning picked up the pace late on to close the deficit, but came home 0.721s behind.
Lebbon finished third, ahead of Douglas Motorsport’s Max Esterson, who gained two places at the start to score his best result so far. Lebbon’s team-mates James Hedley and John Bennett completed the top six.
Elite’s strong weekend continued in race two as, starting from the inside of the front row, Lebbon took advantage of a low downforce set-up to out-drag Granfors on the run to Maggotts and snatch the lead. The Briton then controlled the remainder of the 10-lap contest to take his and the team’s first GB3 victory.
“I just managed to get a run on Joel coming out of Copse,” said Lebbon on his race-winning overtake. “He was carrying a lot more wing than us, so I knew we would have the straightline speed advantage. I managed to get alongside and it was done from there really.”
Granfors came home a close second to further reduce the points deficit to Browning, who was third, while Esterson started and finished fourth to repeat his race-one result. Single-seater rookie Callum Voisin overtook his Carlin stablemate Roberto Faria late on to finish fifth.
It was another rookie who starred in the fully reversed-grid race as Hitech’s Cian Shields, who moved straight into GB3 this year from karts, triumphed having passed polesitter David Morales at the start.
Morales, who missed most of testing due to illness, also lost out to Hillspeed’s Nick Gilkes before Copse. Gilkes then applied pressure on Shields throughout, but it was the latter that held on to win by 0.434s.
“It was quite nerve-wracking having
Nick [Gilkes] on my tail the whole race, but over the moon to come out on top,” said Shields. “Coming straight from karts it was obviously a big jump. We didn’t expect to win in only the second weekend in the car.”
His team-mate Bryce Aron completed a double-overtake on Morales and
Douglas Motorsport’s Tommy Smith into Brooklands early on to score his first podium in third.
Early contact hampered Browning from 18th on the grid, with the resulting damage leaving him down in 17th at the flag. Granfors, meanwhile, passed half the field from the back to finish ninth, giving the Swede a three-point advantage.
“In F4 I had to be sliding the car a bit, and that’s not really my driving style,” said Granfors on his impressive start to the season after moving up from British Formula 4. “I think this car just suits me more and feels better to drive as well with more grip.”
Race victories were also shared in the
Ginetta GT5 Challenge, which provided some of the most dramatic action of the weekend. Elite’s Harley Haughton and points leader Nat Hodgkiss contested first place in the early stages of race one, but the latter eventually retired after a collision with Haughton’s team-mate Will Jenkins.
Will Orton climbed to second, and then set a series of fastest laps to close in on Haughton for the lead. The pair went side-by-side into Abbey, with a trip through the gravel dropping Haughton to fourth. Orton held on to take his second win of the season ahead of Mikey Doble and Jenkins, the top four separated by less than a second.
Jenkins passed Haughton to lead race two, and then took advantage of a frenetic scrap for second to pull away and win by nearly 3s. Haughton and Hodgkiss continued their battle from race one before the latter then lost out to Connor Grady and Orton. In the closing stages, Hodgkiss tried to pass Orton around the outside at Club, but his momentum carried him into Haughton, putting both briefly off the circuit. That allowed Orton to clinch second ahead of Grady and Ruben Hage.
Charles Clark cruised to a brace in the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB series, but had to play second fiddle to Matthew Armstrong in the opening race by less than 0.5s.