Season-Best GB3 Results For Vinci And Nobels At Spa
Dante Vinci produced the best performance of his rookie GB3 Championship partnered by the BRDC campaign so far at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium over the weekend, 30th/31st May, with the Hillspeed driver racing to ninth place in round four before then taking 13th position in round five.
Impressing from the opening day of pre-event testing, where he was fastest of all, the Australian delivered a season-best qualifying with ninth and eighth for the two races, before then producing an especially notable drive in the opening encounter on Saturday.
Team-mate Aurelia Nobels also showed progress since the first event of the season at Silverstone in April, converting 19th on the grid in round four to a best-yet 14th place result at her ‘home’ track. While competing as a Brazilian driver, having grown up there, she has Belgian family heritage.
Peter Bouzinelos also aimed for gains since the championship curtain-raiser and he was well on course in Spa’s opening contest, running very impressively in 11th position before an unfortunate racing incident at Les Combes on lap three triggered retirement. In race two he had to settle for 17th place.
Only two races ultimately took place this weekend at Spa, heavy rain delaying the first GB3 encounter and a packed timetable meaning round six was cancelled. News from the championship organisers is awaited on whether this race will be re-scheduled at a future event.
Steps forward for Hillspeed GB3 rookies in the Ardennes
Vinci, in particular, shone in pre-event testing and the Australian was quickest of all on Thursday, 28th May, before concluding the sessions on Friday, 29th May, seventh overall. Qualifying followed and Vinci was again the fastest of the Hillspeed trio – securing a season-best 10th on the grid for race one, just 0.7 seconds shy of pole, and then an improved eighth in session two for the second race.
Bouzinelos made good strides between practice and qualifying and he lapped less than a second away from round four pole, meaning 13th on the grid, while in session two the Australian was 15th fastest. Nobels was able to build on 19th quickest in round four qualifying to claim an enhanced 17th on the grid in the subsequent round five session.
In true Spa style the weather changed dramatically on Saturday with a lot of rainfall. The cars took to the track behind the Safety Car around 11.00 local time but officials called for red flags on the formation lap due to lack of visibility, meaning round four was pushed back to mid-afternoon.
The weather was much improved by then, the track almost entirely dry, and Vinci produced a fantastic opening lap – quickly taking ninth on the outside at La Source and then climbing to eighth on Kemmel Straight into Les Combes. Although edged back to ninth at the chicane he remained glued to the cars ahead, while Bouzinelos stayed in his starting slot of 13th and so too Nobels in 19th position.
By lap three Bouzinelos had gained two places into 11th and Nobels moved up to 17th, but the antipodean’s race came to an all-too-early end at Les Combes following contact. After a Safety Car intervention racing resumed on lap six, with Vinci ninth and Nobels an enhanced 15th. Vinci ended just 0.4s shy of eighth while Nobels rose as high as 13th, but a track limits penalty meant 14th in the results.
For round five on Sunday morning Vinci lined-up eighth, Nobels in 16th place and Bouzinelos 18th – the latter receiving a surprising three position grid penalty due to the race one incident. At the start Vinci was held out on the outside into La Source and as a result dropped to 13th position during the early exchanges. Conversely, Nobels was able to move up into the top 15 and Bouzinelos climbed into 17th.
By the end of lap one, Vinci had made his way back into the top 12 and Bouzinelos had leapt ahead of Nobels to take 16th – the latter having been shuffled down to 19th place after contact. As the race progressed, so the action ebbed and flowed for the Hillspeed trio and gains were hard to come by.
Vinci slipped to the tail of the top 15 on lap two, but managed to fight back to 13th place where he stayed to the flag. Bouzinelos ran close behind his compatriot during the early going, but eventually had to settle for 17th with Nobels encountering a more frustrating race this time to round out the top 20.
Richard Ollerenshaw – Hillspeed Team Principal:
“We started the weekend strong in testing, particularly with Dante, and we were exceptionally happy with the work Mountune and MSV have done with the engine package since the problems which were experienced at Silverstone. Qualifying was good from Dante, as was race one, for race two though he was held out wide at La Source and so out of the train down to Eau Rouge, which compromised him.
“Aurelia had a good race on Saturday, good progress, but in race two she had contact early on which then made it an uphill battle. Peter was going very strongly in race one until the racing incident, it was a 50/50 but he still ended up with a grid penalty which was disappointing. Race two was all about damage limitation really, but there was quite a bit of contact again which wasn’t ideal.”
There is now a five-week break in the GB3 calendar with rounds seven, eight and nine taking place over the weekend 4th/5th July at the Hungaroring near Budapest.
GB3 Championship Driver Standings (after Rd5)
19th Dante Vinci, 27pts; 21st Aurelia Nobels, 20pts; 23rd Peter Bouzinelos, 9pts
GB3 Championship Team Standings (after Rd5)
8th Hillspeed, 55pts
