Green wins again while Coulthard strikes on last lap
Elite Motorsport’s Fred Green and Douglas Motorsport’s Dayton Coulthard were the winners as the GB4 Championship’s season-opening weekend at Silverstone came to a conclusion.
Green won a truncated race two this morning, doubling up his win tally after victory in race one yesterday, while Coulthard claimed race three victory after a pass on the final lap.
Green leaves Silverstone as the early championship leader, after a superb debut weekend in single-seaters.
Race two
Having led every lap in the first race, Green did the same in race two, again from pole position. He made a good start, survived an early safety car period after multiple lap one incidents and kept things firmly under control upon the restart.
He was unchallenged to the flag, with Hillspeed’s Enzo Hallman and Douglas Motorsport’s Jason Smyth joining him on the podium.
Fortec’s Thomas Ingram Hill was classified fourth ahead of KMR Sport’s Alex O’Grady, with Elite’s Matan Achituv completing the top-six.
Race three
A dramatic event finale was run to two parts, with a red flag interrupting the contest midway through.
On the top-12 reversed grid (from the qualifying result), Scorpio’s Romuald Bocquet led both race starts, and crossed the line as the winner. However he had jumped the second start, and was handed a 10-second penalty.
That meant Coulthard took the victory, and he had to work hard for it, climbing from sixth on the grid. That surge included an excellent pass on Matan Achituv on the final lap, with the pair going wheel to wheel for several corners before the Scotsman made it stick.
Achituv had to settle for second ahead of Archie Davies, who salvaged a podium for Scorpio – their first in GB4.
Smyth, Hallman and Arden’s Charlie Myers completed the top-six.
Race three winner Coulthard said: “I saw the jump start from number nine [Bocquet] and I knew it was going to be all or nothing for first place. I saw a chance and I took it. The weekend is definitely better with a result like that, it had been a bit rough, not the best, but it’s a positive way to end things.”
GB4 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Silverstone race two top-six:
1. Fred Green, Elite Motorsport
2. Enzo Hallman, Hillspeed, +0.670s
3. Jason Smyth, Douglas Motorsport, +2.445s
4. Thomas Ingram Hill, Fortec Motorsports, +2.795s
5. Alex O’Grady, KMR Sport, +4.343s
6. Matan Achituv, Elite Motorsport, penalty
GB4 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Silverstone race three top-six
1. Dayton Coulthard, Douglas Motorsport
2. Matan Achituv, Elite Motorsport, +0.926s
3. Archie Davies, Scorpio Motorsport, +1.181s
4. Jason Smyth, Douglas Motorsport, +1.510s
5. Enzo Hallman, Hillspeed, +1.949s
6. Charlie Myers, Arden Motorsport, +3.795s
Green is go! Fred Green takes early initiative in GB4 season opener
Elite Motorsport’s Fred Green enjoyed the ideal debut to his single-seater career, taking a double pole position in qualifying, which he converted to victory in the first race of the new GB4 season at Silverstone.
The young British driver, part of the Elite McLaren Talent Pathway programme, made a clean start and was largely untroubled thereafter, despite a safety car period. He took the chequered flag a couple of seconds clear of his rivals to seize the early advantage after the first of 21 races this year.
Qualifying
Nitrous Competitions ADM Racing’s Luke Hilton had taken both pole positions on offer in qualifying, but was disqualified from the results of the 15-minute session after failing to slow down when passing yellow flags.
That promoted Green to pole instead, with his fastest time of 2m00.638s putting him at the head of the pack for race one, but only 0.013s ahead of KMR Sport returnee Alex O’Grady.
Hillspeed’s Enzo Hallman was next up in third, ahead of Green’s teammate Emmilio Valentino Del Grosso, with Thomas Ingram Hill (Fortec) and Jason Smyth (Douglas) filling a top-six covered by 0.479s.
Green’s second best lap of 2m00.641s put him further ahead on the race two grid, two tenths of a second clear of Hallman with Del Grosso third.
O’Grady, Smyth and Ingram Hill filled the top-six on second quickest times.
Race one
Green made a good start from pole and held a margin approaching three quarters of a second at the end of the first lap. Teammate Del Grosso meanwhile jumped from fourth to second heading to Copse on the first lap, demoting O’Grady and Hallman.
Green’s lead had just nudged up to a second before the safety car was deployed to recover the gravelled car of Charlie Myers at Farm. Despite it being his single-seater debut, he made an excellent restart, and rebuilt his lead, taking victory with a two second margin to Del Grosso, with O’Grady completing the podium.
Ingram Hill enjoyed a feisty rise up to fourth, including a daring move on Smyth approaching Brooklands. Smyth had to settle for fifth ahead of teammate Dayton Coulthard, who emerged on top of an entertaining battle with the Hillspeed of former teammate Enzo Hallman.
Meanwhile, Hilton surged from 28th on GB4's record-breaking 29 car grid to finish eighth, after a sensational comeback drive.
Two more GB4 races will follow on Sunday, with both contests streamed live on the GB4 Championship website.
Race winner Green said: “It feels good, the track was a bit tricky compared to qualifying, so a bit more challenging than I expected, and I made a mistake early on. The rest of the execution was really good and I couldn’t be happier. I’m so chuffed with my teammate coming second as well, I couldn’t be happier.”
Click here for full results and standing
Image credits: Jakob Ebrey Photography
