Championship Lead For GB4 Debutant Guinchard And Excellent Series Debut For Juncos At Donington
Hillspeed enjoyed an excellent start to the GB4 Championship partnered by the BRDC season at Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit over the weekend, 5th/6th April, with Daniel Guinchard taking the early points lead – as well as a podium finish in round one – and team-mate Leandro Juncos almost grabbing silverware of his own in round three.
Embarking on their respective GB4 debuts at the Leicestershire track, the team-mates impressed with Guinchard – competing in his first car race for 18 months – starring by climbing from fourth on the grid to second in round one. Adding fifth in round two on Sunday, he then claimed fourth position in round three to depart Donington at the top of the Drivers’ Championship.
Juncos got his first full season of single-seater racing underway brilliantly after qualifying fifth and then finishing fourth in race one, fourth again in race two – from sixth on the grid – and he was on course for the podium in round three. While challenging for second with just over a lap to go though, unfortunate contact dropped him to 14th place. Nonetheless, Juncos ends the event seventh in the points.
Markham Vale’s Hillspeed marked its return to GB4 for the first time since 2022 very impressively overall, with strong qualifying pace and even better race pace from both cars and drivers. The squad ends the season curtain-raiser second in the Team Standings – great going with one seat still vacant.
Guinchard and Juncos impress on first weekend of GB4
Following two successful days of preparation at Donington ahead of the weekend, Guinchard and Juncos went into qualifying on Saturday morning aiming for a strong performance and both delivered for Hillspeed. So evenly matched were the team-mates, Guinchard was fourth fastest with a time of 1m27.909 seconds and Juncos was a miniscule 0.002 seconds shy to take fifth on the grid for race one.
With both only 0.18 seconds shy of pole position, and the top 10 covered by less than half a second, round one of the season later in the afternoon was expected to be very hotly contested. At the start Juncos made the better launch and into Redgate he was alongside Guinchard disputing fifth and sixth.
Out of the first corner, though, contact ahead provided an opportunity to pounce and Guinchard certainly made the most of it – ultimately slicing his way through to second place with some terrific overtaking. Juncos, meanwhile, was shuffled to sixth during the early skirmishes but he soon mounted a stellar fightback.
Guinchard had cut the gap to the leader to around one second by the start of lap three and although dropping away a little mid-race, he took the chequered flag on lap 13 just 1.3 seconds shy. Juncos produced some superb driving of his own, taking fifth with a great move on lap five and then firing out of the Fogarty Esses impressively on lap 10 to set-up a successful pass for fourth at Melbourne Hairpin.
For Sunday morning’s second round Guinchard lined up fifth with Juncos alongside, the result of their respective second fastest times in qualifying. Making even launches, the team-mates ran side-by-side through Redgate and down to the Craner Curves with Guinchard looking to make a move for fourth at the Old Hairpin. On the drive up to Schwantz Curve and Coppice, though, Juncos pressured.
Following some fantastic, respectful wheel-to-wheel racing, on lap three Juncos’ perseverance paid off and he moved ahead of Guinchard through the Old Hairpin. Then, on lap five at Melbourne, he smartly took fourth when Jack Taylor went wide under braking. Closing down the gap to the podium placings, at the flag Juncos was just 0.8 seconds shy and only missed out on fastest race lap by 0.1 seconds.
Guinchard spent the second half of the encounter glued to Taylor’s car and his close attention finally told with just a couple of corners to go on the 13th and final lap, charging through to take fifth and another great team result for Hillspeed.
With the top 12 qualifiers reversed on the grid for round three, Juncos lined-up eighth with Guinchard on row five in ninth. Running eighth and 10th respectively out of Redgate, Juncos moved up to seventh and swiftly took sixth as well while Guinchard climbed back up to eighth on the first lap.
Into Redgate the next time around, Juncos served up a terrific pass around the outside for fifth and he continued his rapid progress at Melbourne Hairpin to momentarily grab fourth. Luke Hilton hit back at Goddards, but with great drive down to Redgate on lap three Juncos repeated his move from the lap prior and sealed fourth place on the outside.
Catching third, Juncos made a move stick into the hairpin to climb into the podium placings on the fifth tour while Guinchard also took a place at Goddards around the outside of Hilton. With both Hillspeed drivers pressuring rivals heavily, more gains looked a certainty. Guinchard took sixth on lap 10 when a rival ran straight on at the Fogarty Esses and on lap 12 Juncos made his move for second.
Going for the inside on the brakes into the hairpin, he got alongside Leon Wilson but unfortunate contact as they rounded the right-hander resulted in both cars spinning. Guinchard managed to pick his way through the drama to take fourth where he remained to the flag on lap 13 – just 0.4 seconds shy of his second podium of the weekend. Juncos, meanwhile, recovered to finish in 14th position.
Daniel Guinchard:
“I can’t believe how well it’s gone this weekend, fantastic to be on the podium in my first race in 18 months and to be so close in all the races. I’m really happy with some of the moves I made in the races too, some really good overtakes, and it’s obviously incredible to be leading the championship. Being back racing is the most excited I’ve been for a long time, we’ve obviously had a lack of testing as a team pre-season but the Hillspeed guys have done a fantastic job – it’s been a great start.”
Leandro Juncos:
“Overall, it’s been a very positive weekend. I’m very happy for the team results, I think both me and Dan had very positive races. The car was mega quick, pretty much from the first practice we were very quick, we made some improvements on the car and all through the races I think we really showed we were up there with the fastest car – if not the fastest – all weekend. I’m very, very thankful for the car the team supplied and also for the effort the guys made between race two and race three, we had an unexpected engine change, so for the team to get that ready in a short amount of time was remarkable.”
Richard Ollerenshaw – Hillspeed Team Principal:
“All in all it’s been an exceptional weekend. To be leaving Donington with Dan leading the Championship and to be second in the Team Championship, especially with only two cars out this weekend, is fantastic and shows the hard work we’ve been doing. Both Dan and Leandro have driven brilliantly, we were delighted to see Dan on the podium in his first race back after so long out of racing and Leandro showed what a great driver he is – race three was very unfortunate for him but he proved what he’s capable of. It’s been an excellent start to the season on our return to GB4 and we’ll hopefully have our third car out for the next round at Silverstone as well.”
Rounds four, five and six of the new GB4 Championship season will take place just three weeks from now over the weekend 26th/27th April with the first of two visits to Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit. There, Hillspeed will also begin the 2025 GB3 Championship partnered by the BRDC campaign.
GB4 Championship Driver Standings (after Rd3)
1st Daniel Guinchard, 66pts; 7th Leandro Juncos, 44pts
GB4 Championship Team Standings (after Rd3)
2nd Hillspeed, 110pts
