Double Silverstone GB3 Victory For Peerless Slater Plus First GB4 Win For Guinchard
Hillspeed’s Freddie Slater produced an outstanding performance during the first event of the GB3 Championship partnered by the BRDC season at Silverstone over the weekend, 26th/27th April, with two sensational lights-to-flag race wins and the Sunoco Fastest Driver of the Weekend Award.
After dominating qualifying on his debut with Markham Vale’s Hillspeed to take pole positions for rounds one and two, Slater was sheer perfection in Saturday’s race with a flawless drive to deliver victory – making history in the first race for the brand new MSV GB3-025 car – by some seven seconds.
In round two on Sunday morning, Slater’s victory was even more dominant, leading by close to 10 seconds before a final lap Safety Car. The BRDC SuperStar aimed high for the reverse grid round three but some unfortunate contact led to an eventual finish of 13th position.
“Overall we’ve had a really positive weekend, the pace has been good”, said Slater, “My management team and coach have put so much effort in over the winter, which makes it look easy when it comes to the race weekends – but it’s definitely not easy! Hillspeed and my engineer have given me such a fantastic car to go out there, from lap one this weekend, to try and dominate – and we did exactly that.”
Hillspeed also celebrated a brilliant win for Daniel Guinchard, his first in the sister GB4 Championship partnered by the BRDC, who departed Silverstone retaking the points lead in the category. Climbing from third on the grid to earn victory in round six on Sunday evening, his team-mate Leandro Juncos deservingly tasted GB4 podium success for the first time with an excellent third place.
“It was really good, the pace was really strong”, Guinchard commented, “I knew we had a good chance from the start, got a really clean getaway and got into second. When I got into the lead I settled in, then the Safety Car came out just to make things more interesting! Overall I’m really happy, the Safety Car re-start was really strong.”
Juncos added: “The car was amazing, Hillspeed did a great job. We’ve been working at it all weekend, to get a double podium is huge for us. Without the Safety Car we definitely would’ve got at least second, but we made a lot of good steps this weekend and we can take that from here to the next race.”
Hiyu Yamakoshi and Kanato Le were incredibly evenly matched across the entire weekend in GB3 and scored good points in all three races. Round three on Sunday was easily the best for both drivers, with Yamakoshi starring to take fourth from 12th on the grid, while Le raced very well to eighth from 13th spot.
‘Fast Freddie’ dominates opening weekend of GB3 season
Slater truly was in a class of his own in qualifying, taking pole in session one with a lap of 1m52.194 seconds – half a second clear of the competition and then in session two producing a new GB3 qualifying lap record of 1m51.647 seconds to bag the pole for round two. Impressively, Yamakoshi secured eighth on the grid for race one and Le was just a tenth shy in ninth.
Delivering a masterclass in GB3 round one on Saturday afternoon, Slater opened an advantage of almost two seconds by the end of the first tour and was in a league of his own – pumping in fastest lap after fastest lap. Although backing off slightly near the end, he won by a fraction under seven seconds.
Yamakoshi and Le had a great battle race-long, never split by more than half a second, but the latter’s challenge was impacted slightly by damage to his car’s nose cone – sustained on lap one out of The Loop, when in the midst of a tight, multi-car battle just outside the top 10. Le had managed to leapfrog Yamakoshi on lap one, but the latter got back ahead on lap four and they finished 12th and 13th.
Round two on Sunday morning was an almost carbon-copy from Slater, launching perfectly from pole and pulling away before an early Safety Car negated his advantage. Judging the re-start to precision, he again banked fastest lap after fastest lap to lead by almost 10 seconds before the Safety Car was needed again on the final tour. Added to win number two, Slater set the fastest lap of 1m52.802 seconds.
Yamakoshi had set the fourth fastest time in round two qualifying, but his time was removed due to flags late in the session. Instead lining-up 12th, one place ahead of Le, the duo battled hard once more race-long and made up good ground with Le managing to get ahead of his team-mate to finish 10th and Yamakoshi taking 11th place. Post-race, a penalty for another driver lifted them to ninth and 10th.
Slater started the partially reversed grid round three from 11th but after a great launch he was involved in unfortunate contact while four-wide at Copse. Continuing, but delayed, he climbed back to seventh and also did well to avoid further dramas when two cars came together on Hamilton Straight. Then, when passing for sixth on lap eight, contact pitched the Hillspeed car into a spin and he ended up 13th.
Yamakoshi made the most of the frenetic lap one action to surge into the top six from 12th, prior to an early Safety Car. Impressively taking fifth at the end of Hamilton Straight on lap five, he swarmed over fourth place for the remainder of the contest and was just half a second shy at the chequered flag. Post-race, though, he was elevated to fourth due to a penalty for a rival.
Compatriot Le also made excellent progress from row seven. Although not able to make the same early gains after being out of position in the first corner dramas, he still climbed two places and after breaking into the top 10 on lap five he gained three positions through the lap eight incident which accounted for Slater. Although edged back to eighth on the penultimate tour, the result was still a great finish.
Guinchard retakes GB4 points lead with maiden win
Juncos and Guinchard were incredibly evenly matched in qualifying for GB4, only a thousandth of a second between them in the Argentine-American’s favour, but due to a three-place grid penalty from Donington earlier in the month Juncos lined-up 11th for round four while Guinchard started eighth.
Both drivers challenged hard from the outset in Saturday evening’s race, Guinchard moving into seventh and battling for sixth while Juncos made his way up into the top 10. On lap two Guinchard took sixth at Luffield, a move started at Brooklands, but thereafter there was no clear opportunity to rise any higher. Juncos strived for more as well and on the penultimate lap he climbed into ninth place.
Guinchard lined-up eighth for round five on Sunday with Juncos directly behind in 10th place, and both launched well. Guinchard pressured for seventh as Juncos took ninth, but the latter then slipped to 10th again at The Loop. Guinchard grabbed seventh on lap two at Club and after a one lap Safety Car he made a great re-start and took sixth into Vale with a superb move he started on the outside at Stowe.
Juncos, meanwhile, had moved up into ninth and on lap four he gained two further places out of The Loop due to a tangle ahead. After another Safety Car, racing resumed on lap seven and Guinchard delivered a great pass for fifth on the outside at Vale, with Juncos following him through brilliantly to grab sixth. That’s how it ended on lap eight, with Guinchard setting fastest race lap on the final tour.
Guinchard lined-up third on the partially reversed grid for round six with Juncos fourth. They each made excellent starts, Guinchard taking second around the outside into Copse and Juncos sealed third with a great pass at Becketts. Guinchard closed on race leader Jason Pribyl, with Juncos close behind, and on lap four the former’s pressure told on Pribyl when he went wide at Club and the Hillspeed car swept past.
The Safety Car was deployed on lap seven but at the re-start a lap later Guinchard judged it perfectly, pulling away to win on lap nine by just over a second – retaking the championship lead he had held coming into the weekend. Juncos maintained third after the resumption and wanted more, just missing out on a Hillspeed one-two by a mere 0.6 seconds.
Richard Ollerenshaw – Hillspeed Team Principal:
“It’s been an exceptional performance from the entire team, an incredibly hard and long weekend but one which has delivered significant rewards for the drivers who had the faith to race with Hillspeed this year – and a great reward to all of our guys who have prepared such competitive and reliable cars. I think I’m right in saying we’re the only team to bring all three cars home in each of the GB3 races.
“Two poles and two wins for Freddie, what a performance! I’m sure he would’ve been top five at least in race three, had things gone differently. It would be a joy to have him with us all season, but we’ll make the most of the races we do have him! Hiyu and Kanato have both done a very good job as well, they improved all weekend as they learnt the driving style required in GB3.
“Obviously we’re delighted for Dan to take his first GB4 win, and for Leandro to be on the podium for the first time as well. Dan did what he needed to in the final race, and he’s back on top of the points as a result, while Leandro is getting quicker and quicker. He has incredible race pace and creates moves from very little, they’re a fantastic combination.”
Zandvoort in The Netherlands will host the second GB3 event of the year three weeks from now, on 17th/18th May. GB4, meanwhile, will resume for rounds seven, eight and nine of its season a week later at Oulton Park in Cheshire – racing on Saturday, 24th May and Spring Bank Holiday Monday, 26th May.
GB3 Championship Driver Standings (after Rd3)
1st Freddie Slater, 73pts; 10th Hiyu Yamakoshi, 33pts; 12th Kanato Le, 28pts
GB3 Championship Team Standings (after Rd3)
1st Hillspeed, 112pts
GB4 Championship Driver Standings (after Rd6)
1st Daniel Guinchard, 124pts; 5th Leandro Juncos, 89pts
GB4 Championship Team Standings (after Rd6)
2nd Hillspeed, 213pts
