Faultless Lights-To-Flag Victory For Guinchard At Oulton Enhances GB4 Points Lead
Hillspeed’s Daniel Guinchard boosted his lead at the top of the GB4 Championship partnered by the BRDC standings to 36 points at Oulton Park International Circuit on Bank Holiday Monday, 26th May, after a great weekend which delivered a double pole position and his second win of the season.
Initially, it looked as though the Markham Vale team had secured a dream one-two finish for Guinchard and Leandro Juncos in round eight on Monday afternoon at the Cheshire track – but a penalty for an unintentional yellow flag infringement meant Juncos was removed from the results.
Even so, the third event of the GB4 season was a positive one overall for Hillspeed and with Guinchard taking points for 13th place in round seven on Saturday, 24th May, the victory in round eight and a top four result from the pitlane in a bizarre round nine, he happily sits atop the driver standings.
Juncos, in his first full season of car racing, impressed in qualifying with the fifth fastest time and after an unfortunate excursion in the first race, slick tyres on an increasingly slippery track, a sensational drive in the second contest looked to have delivered a richly deserved runner-up spot. In the wet-but-drying third encounter, he finished eighth and is seventh in the championship.
Hillspeed solidifies GB4 Championship challenge at Oulton Park
Guinchard certainly confirmed his credentials, not that any proof were needed, during testing by topping all three sessions on Thursday, 22nd May, and he was quickest in the first of two further runs on Friday, 23rd May. Juncos was right there as well, Hillspeed posting a one-two in the second session on Thursday, to prepare brilliantly for qualifying.
Saturday afternoon’s grid-determining session went equally well, Guinchard scorching to a magnificent double pole position. Setting an initial flyer of 1m35.491 seconds, he reduced his time to 1m34.806 seconds to take pole for round seven and set an incredibly consistent second best of 1m34.837 seconds.
Juncos was just three tenths shy of his team-mate, a fantastic showing on his maiden visit to the uniquely challenging Oulton Park International Circuit, and he claimed fifth on the grid for the first two races of the weekend – times of 1m35.151 seconds and 1m35.387 seconds.
From the joys of qualifying though came immense disappointment in race one of the weekend, round seven, when rain left the competitors with a difficult tyre choice to make. Hillspeed opted for slicks, in line with their main competition, in the expectation the track would come to them – but the rain stayed.
Guinchard launched as well as he could from pole, but was fourth by the time the field reached Cascades and ended lap one in 21st place. Team-mate Juncos was also on the receiving end of the lap one chaos and lack of grip, dropping to 24th spot. His race ended with a trip into the gravel on lap two, while Guinchard managed to climb to 13th by the finish and somehow increase his points lead.
From pole position again in round eight on Monday, Guinchard launched perfectly and he dominated to take his second victory of the season. Leading by 1.3 seconds when the Safety Car was deployed on lap three, at the resumption two laps later Guinchard judged it perfectly – the track becoming increasingly slippery – and he went on to wrap-up the win by three seconds, as well as taking away the fastest lap.
The opening tour was a masterclass from Juncos, instantly moving up from fifth on the grid to fourth and slicing through brilliantly to third into Cascades. Swarming all over the back of Alex Kattoulas’ car into Island Bend, Juncos neatly grabbed second at Shell Oils Hairpin. Unsighted, Juncos didn’t see the yellow flags in place at the time and so post-race the second place finish was expunged.
Rain arrived ahead of round nine and there was plentiful confusion prior to the start. After one car crashed on the original formation lap, several drivers then opted to pit to change from slick Pirelli tyres to wet-weather rubber – Guinchard among them. Of those who arrived on the grid, most were then pushed into pitlane to change to wets and this group contained Juncos.
Five cars which were originally on treaded rubber did line-up on the grid for the race start, Guinchard was then second in the queue of cars lined-up in pitlane and Juncos was mid-group. Intriguingly, the track was slippery, but not all that wet.
Guinchard made good progress early on and managed to climb into the podium placings by lap five, but with the track becoming drier and the wets losing performance and grip he was a sitting duck for one of the few slick-shod cars and so slipped to fourth. Juncos was 14th at the end of lap one and rose very impressively to seventh, before having to settle for eighth in the end for the same reasons of grip.
Daniel Guinchard:
“It feels amazing to win. Conditions like that, where it was topsy turvy, Safety Car re-start and oil on the track, and it was nice to win by a little bit of a margin as well. Massive shout-out to Leandro, he drove a fantastic race to get P2. I had a really good start, managed to get a gap, I looked in my mirrors and saw Leandro fighting for P2 – it shows how good a car we have.”
Richard Ollerenshaw – Hillspeed Team Principal:
“It’s been a mixed weekend in some respects, but to be as quick as we were in testing, then taking double pole and with both drivers in the top five in qualifying, and then winning race two, there’s plenty to be pleased about. Dan and Leandro were both very quick all weekend, Dan’s win was impressive and it’s great to see him extend his lead in the championship.
“Obviously, it’s a big shame about the penalty for Leandro as he deserved that second place and he had produced some fantastic overtaking. He was alongside Kattoulas but blind-sided to the yellows on the right hand side, he was unable to see them, but we respect the Clerk’s decision as safety is paramount.”
There is now a seven week break in the GB4 Championship calendar with rounds 10, 11 and 12 of the season taking place at Snetterton 300 Circuit in Norfolk over the weekend 12th/13th July. Before then, next weekend in fact, Hillspeed will be in action with is GB3 Championship team at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium on Saturday, 31st May, and Sunday, 1st June.
GB4 Championship Driver Standings (after Rd9)
1st Daniel Guinchard, 188pts; 7th Leandro Juncos, 97pts
GB4 Championship Team Standings (after Rd9)
2nd Hillspeed, 285pts
