David Morales completed the podium for Arden having pulled off an audacious overtake on Nick Gilkes, looking to the outside at the high-speed Island Bend before taking to the inside at the Shell Oils hairpin. Mikkel Grundtvig (Fortec) took another fully reversed-grid victory, having never been headed from the start as Douglas Motorsport’s Tommy Smith came home second. The Swede did keep his front-row start for the second race, but lost out to Faria off the line and came home third from Rees, Bennett and Tom Lebbon (Elite), who had also been on the receiving end of a qualifying grid penalty for race one.Īlex Walker (Elite Motorsport) extended his points lead in GB4
The Fortec Motorsports driver was stuck in fifth gear for the final tour and eventually finished sixth, having lost the opportunity to start from the front row having been demoted five places for a collision with Branden Oxley in qualifying. McKenzy Cresswell was another impressive debutant in the opener, as he took fourth for Chris Dittmann Racing ahead of fellow rookie John Bennett (Elite Motorsport), who passed Joel Granfors on the last lap. “It was maybe not the best for the tyres, but for me it was psychological to show I was there, but credit to him he didn’t make a mistake,” said Rees. Despite the difficulty of following in the heavily aero-dependent cars, the 2021 British F4 champion kept under the Brazilian’s rear wing almost throughout but failed to find an opening. Roberto Faria was his closest challenger on both occasions, but the Carlin driver’s focus was on those behind him as he withstood constant pressure from an impressive Matthew Rees in the opener. “It feels amazing and being at home is something special.” “For sure as it’s so difficult to overtake,” said the 20-year-old after winning at his local track. The closest his rivals came to challenging was off the line but, once Browning had the holeshot each time, he was never headed, cruising to victory by around 10 seconds in both races. The 2020 British F4 champion had no problem adapting to the new-for-2022 Tatuus MSV-022 machine, placing his Hitech GP-run car on pole for the first two races. But, with several cars mid-pitstop, the race was red-flagged, creating confusion as success penalties for Gounon/Loggie (7s) and Carroll/Balfe (10s) had yet to be taken.
Mitchell then tagged Clutton into a spin at Lodge as the remaining dry-shod runners tiptoed in for wets. Rain then hit and, on lap 15, Caroline and Proctor both aquaplaned off approaching Druids – with the latter clearing the barrier. Gounon’s four-second advantage was wiped out by a safety car, caused by Freddie Tomlinson assaulting GT4 rival Moh Ritson at Shell Oils, but he escaped again at the restart as Plowman zapped Lewis Proctor (Greystone McLaren) for ninth. Plowman, meanwhile, capitalised on Will Tregurtha (Assetto Bentley) punting Keen into a spin at Cascades, forcing Stanley off in avoidance, to take 10th. Gounon set a new qualifying lap record on his way to race-two pole and bolted away from Carroll as Euan Hankey (7TSIX McLaren), Clutton and Jamie Caroline (RAM Mercedes) shuffled third-starter Sandy Mitchell (Barwell Lamborghini) back to sixth. Ian Loggie/Jule Gounon (RAM Racing Mercedes AMG) won on the road in race two put were pushed down the order “It was like gala bingo,” remarked Balfe of the flurry of penalties. Lewis Williamson (in for Cottingham) took over in front after Neary’s penalty, but also had a stop/go to serve following a team error with the timer. That double whammy should have handed the lead to Tillbrook after Tse pitted a lap later than the rest, but he had missed his pitbox as the GT3 runners streamed in and had to go around again, leaving team-mate Marcus Clutton to fight back to eighth.
But, as Neary moved back to the right, Davidson was already there and was edged onto the grass on a collision course with the barriers.Ī frustrated Neary received a stop/go penalty for the contact, plus another for a fractionally short pitstop. Through traffic, the leaders were tightly bunched and Davidson was ready to pounce when Neary was baulked up Clay Hill. He tumbled to sixth on lap one as Richard Neary (Abba Mercedes) headed returning 2019 champion Graham Davidson (Rocket RJN McLaren), Morgan Tillbrook (Enduro McLaren) and 2 Seas Mercedes pair James Cottingham and Kevin Tse. Poleman Balfe lost out at the start of the opener as his tyres took their time to heat up.