Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Ninovic and Hillspeed’s Kanato Le were victorious on Saturday at Spa-Francorchamps, as Ninovic surged into the championship lead.

 

Ninovic won the first race of the event this morning from pole, but had to withstand two safety car restarts in the process, while Le fought back from a slow start to win a curtailed second contest, for which the results remain provisional.

 

Race one
Having set the fastest time in Qualifying One, Ninovic lined up on pole and made a good start to hold the lead on the first lap.

 

Immediately putting himself out of DRS range, the Australian led throughout but had to survive an early safety car restart, and had to do the same again late on, with an effective one lap shootout at the end of the race.

 

Each time he was able to create a gap to the opposition, and he claimed his second win of the year with a margin of over two seconds to VRD Racing’s Hugo Schwarze. The German driver survived an attack at Les Combes on the final lap to claim second place ahead of Le, who moved up from seventh on the grid to third, and gained three spots on the final lap alone. 

 

JHR’s Noah Lisle was fourth ahead of Elite’s Will Macintyre and Rodin’s Gianmarco Pradel. From the back of the grid, Hillspeed’s Freddie Slater made sensational progress to finish ninth, while Hitech’s Deagen Fairclough was just as impressive from 22nd on the grid, though lost his top-10 result due to a post race penalty.

 

Race two
Le made a slow start from pole position, secured in the second qualifying session, and fell as low as fifth at the first corner as Ninovic and Pradel moved into first and second. But while Ninovic was able to hold the lead for the first few laps, Le was set on making progress and picked off his rivals one by one, until he was up to second.

 

Ninovic was unable to break away this time and Le pounced on the Kemmel Straight on lap five and held the lead from there. 

 

Nikita Johnson secured second for Hitech TGR, rising up from sixth on the grid with a superb series of passes of his own, while Ninovic extended his championship lead with the final podium spot. 

 

Hitech’s Keanu Al Azhari was in the thick of the action and took fourth place ahead of Hillspeed’s Hiyu Yamakoshi, with Macintyre sixth this time around. 

 

Slater’s comeback drive was even better this time around as he secured eighth from the same 23rd grid slot as in race one, while Fairclough’s rise from 22nd resulted in 11th place. 

 

Time constraints imposed by the circuit towards the end of the race meant the contest ended two laps early, and the results remain provisional until further notice.

 

Le said: “It really feels nice to finally win. We've had the pace all weekend and finally we managed to put it together and win. So, yeah, I’m feeling good.

 

"Honestly the start wasn't the best. I had a really terrible start, to be honest, but I just managed to settle down, stay calm and get the position back. I was just staying calm and driving how I was doing the whole weekend, and I managed to win.

 

"A podium [in race three] will be nice, but I’m definitely going for the win again."

 

Ninovic said: "I’m really happy with today to finish P1 and P3 scoring really good points for the championship and a lot better than what we were in testing. We made a really good jump in qualifying and obviously showed it in the race to qualify P1 in Quali One and get the win was really nice. And then today to end this afternoon to get P3, so a really good day.

 

"My start was really good. This morning I made a little mistake and it didn't give us much of advantage. But then for this afternoon, I fixed up a few things with my start technique and we managed to get into P1 by turn two. I got a really good exit at turn one and then managed to stay in the lead for about five laps before Kanato and Nikita came past. I managed a few things in that race but did my best to come away with P3.

 

"It’s been really good to get a really good jump in the championship with points. It definitely could pay off in the long haul. I did my best today and it obviously showed that we can do good things. So yeah, I’m super happy with how I've performed today."

 

GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, race one top-six result:
1. Alex Ninovic, Rodin Motorsport, 9 laps
2. Hugo Schwarze, VRD Racing, +2.351s
3. Kanato Le, Hillspeed, +2.561s
4. Noah Lisle, JHR Developments, +4.785s
5. Will Macintyre, Elite Motorsport, +5.265s
6. Gianmarco Pradel, Rodin Motorsport, +5.720s

 

GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, race two provisional top-six result:
1. Kanato Le, Hillspeed, 9 laps
2. Nikita Johnson, Hitech TGR, +1.222s
3. Alex Ninovic, Rodin Motorsport, +2.286s
4. Keanu Al Azhari, Hitech TGR, +4.220s
5. Hiyu Yamakoshi, Hillspeed, +4.964s
6. Will Macintyre, Elite Motorsport, +6.002s

 

GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, provisional driver standings after race eight of 24:
1. Alex Ninovic, Rodin Motorsport, 165pts
2. Patrick Heuzenroeder, Xcel Motorsport, 144pts
3. Noah Lisle, JHR Developments, 126pts
4. Gianmarco Pradel, Rodin Motorsport, 116pts
5. Will Macintyre, Elite Motorsport, 110pts
6. Deagen Fairclough, 110pts

 

GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, provisional team standings after race eight of 24:
1. Rodin Motorsport, 288pts
2. Hitech TGR, 265pts
3. Xcel Motorsport, 216pts
4. Hillspeed, 215pts
5. JHR Developments, 208pts
6. Argenti with Prema, 186pts