Seb Morris just missed out on a ‘home’ points finish at Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit over the weekend, 4th/5th July, during the latest instalment of GP3 Series action – a strong showing for the 19-year-old delivering a best result of 12th position in round six on Sunday morning.
Producing his most competitive qualifying run of the season so far, securing 13th on the grid for round five on Saturday with a time just 0.5 seconds shy of the top six, the Welshman also delivered great pace in race conditions and wasn’t too frustrated to miss out on the points positions.
“We made a massive step forward with our pace”, said the Sport Wales-supported Marford teenager, “My best lap in qualifying would have put us P6 on the grid for the first race, but I was penalised for marginally running over the white line – a lot of drivers were – so we ended up further down the grid than we should have been. We were on the back-foot from there in the races.
“If things had worked out, we could have been top six in the first race and then with a good reverse grid start for race two but I’m not too disappointed at all. The main thing is we’ve found a lot of pace, I had more speed than my team-mates and my confidence is building all of the time.”
At the beginning of Saturday’s contest, which took place under glorious Silverstone skies, Seb wasn’t able to get away from the line as smartly as he wanted and was edged back to 16th position as a result. Inside two laps, though, the Status Grand Prix driver was back into 13th place.
Close behind the battling Matheo Tuscher and Oscar Tunjo, the Welshman pressured hard on lap three at Stowe but had to think better of a possible passing attempt to avoid potential contact. On lap seven, though, Seb climbed into the top 12 due to problems for Alex Palou and thereafter he stayed in touch with the scrap at the tail of the top 10.
At the completion of the race, though, Seb was served with a time penalty after officials adjudged him to have exceeded track limits on a couple of occasions – so he was classified in 15th position. Confirming his pace, the Serge DeNimes and Oxford Vaughan ambassador’s fastest lap of the race, a time of 1m51.011 seconds, was just 0.3 seconds shy of podium pace.
With a bigger challenge facing him in round six on Sunday morning from 15th on the grid, Seb made a good start to hold position initially into Abbey and he smartly gained two places into the complex before then climbing into 11th to cap a sensational opening lap.
Running close behind Tunjo and Tuscher at the cusp of the top 10, in a repeat of race one’s battle, Seb stayed within a few tenths of a second but on lap six his car stepped out at Becketts and after running wide, his entry to Hangar Straight was compromised – enabling Alfonso Celis Jnr to go past.
Determined to get 11th back, Seb pressured hard and on lap 10 he set his best lap of the race of 1m50.340 seconds to confirm his intent. Ultimately, though, the MSA Team UK and FIA Institute Young Driver Excellence Academy racer had to settle for a top 12 finish at the flag on lap 15.
While the GP3 contests didn’t deliver the results which Seb’s pace warranted, off track this weekend he did enjoy success in the F1 GAMEZONE simulator competition by emerging victorious on Friday, 3rd July – notably lapping faster than FIA Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton.
“Being involved in the F1 GAMEZONE is a lot of fun and to be quicker than Lewis was definitely a good start to our Silverstone weekend – even if it was on a sim!”, said Seb, “It’s been great being back at Silvestone and the GAMEZONE gave us a great opportunity to meet some amazing fans.”
Rounds seven and eight of the GP3 Series will take place three weeks from now, over the weekend 25th/26th July, at the Hungaroring, near Budapest in Hungary.
2015 GP3 Series Driver Standings (after Rd6): 13th Seb Morris, 6pts
