Photo: Mat Acton
Hitech GP’s Jacob Micallef passed Rodrigo Gonzalez on the final lap to grab his maiden single-seater victory in an epic GB3 reversed-grid race at Silverstone.
The Maltese racer secured Hitech GP’s third win of the weekend despite running fourth until the closing stages, while Velocity Racing Development’s Gonzalez and Elite Motorsport’s Edu Robinson completed the podium.
Robinson started the final race of his debut GB3 weekend from reversed-grid pole, but he was beaten by Gonzalez into Copse, where he then ran wide but maintained second ahead of Micallef.
An opening-lap lunge on Gonzalez into Vale ended up with Micallef losing out to Arden’s Leon Wilson, and the front four maintained formation for the next few laps.
The action ramped up as the race entered the latter stages, with Micallef pulling off a bold overtake around the outside of Wilson at Abbey into third. That allowed the front two to pull clear but, as they started to battle, Micallef was able to close back in.
Robinson challenged Gonzalez on the outside at Abbey, and again into Village, before sneaking past on the inside at the Loop, but the latter then drew back alongside on the exit before reclaiming the advantage into Brooklands.
Micallef then pounced after Robinson failed to make another move stick into Copse, prevailing in a run through Maggotts and Becketts to snatch second.
The lead fight continued into the final lap, with Micallef locking up while trying a move into Vale, but he would get another opportunity a few corners later. Having made the better exit onto the Wellington Straight, Micallef moved to the right of Gonzalez and, despite being squeezed to the edge of the road by his rival, managed to sweep around the outside at Brooklands before sealing victory.
Gonzalez’s brother Patricio passed VRD team-mate Nikita Bedrin on the opening lap for fifth, and the pair lost ground to the top four early on while continuing to battle each other. But, after closing back in, Patricio Gonzalez went deep into Village while defending from Bedrin and almost collected Wilson, who had to take avoiding action.
Wilson remained ahead initially but then lost out to the VRD duo through Brooklands and Luffield and slipped to sixth. Bedrin could not find a way by his team-mate and had to settle for fifth, but still leaves Silverstone with a sizeable championship lead.
Rodin Motorsport’s Maxim Rehm finished seventh, while Rowan Campbell-Pilling continued his weekend-long scrap with Lucas Fluxa, passing his Xcel Motorsport team-mate in a thrilling dice through Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel to take eighth.
Deagen Fairclough, winner of races one and two, made up two places to 10th, while Rodin’s Martin Molnar went off the road the first lap and finished 12th behind Kyuho Lee. Molnar’s team-mate Abbi Pulling was forced to start from the pitlane with an issue, and a high-speed spin at Copse ended her race early.