Elite’s Will Macintyre wins GB3’s reversed-grid race at Silverstone

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Elite Motorsport’s Will Macintyre scored his fourth GB3 victory in an incident-filled final race of the weekend at Silverstone.

Macintyre came home three seconds clear of Hitech GP’s Keanu Al Azhari, and Xcel Motorsport’s Patrick Heuzenroeder completed the podium, with the race reduced to 11 laps due to the race’s time limit expiring.

Hillspeed’s Freddie Slater leaves the weekend with the points lead despite tumbling down the order in a late clash with Hitech’s Nikita Johnson, while all three Rodin Motorsport drivers retired following separate collisions.

Lining up from second on the reversed grid, Macintyre snatched the lead into Maggotts from JHR Developments’ Kai Daryanani, while Al Azhari was slow away from pole and slipped to fourth behind Heuzenroeder.

Having swept past Heuzenroeder into Stowe, Al Azhari made a bold bid for the lead into Club, as Macintyre defended from Daryanani in front of him. Macintyre emerged still in front, while Daryanani dropped to fourth place behind Al Azhari and Heuzenroeder.

The safety car was deployed before the first lap was completed due to two separate incidents.

JHR’s Noah Lisle was sent spinning into retirement at turn one after finding himself on the outside a four-wide battle, while Rodin’s Abbi Pulling and Xcel’s Dion Gowda tangled on the exit of Club while contesting fifth and both spun into the pitwall on the Hamilton Straight.

Alex Ninovic profited from his Rodin team-mate’s misfortune to climb to fifth, but then lost his front wing shortly after racing resumed on lap five, and he eventually pulled into the pitlane to retire.

Macintyre pulled clear over the remaining laps for his first win of the season, while Al Azhari fended off Heuzenroeder behind. Daryanani maintained fourth until the finish, with Hillspeed’s Hiyu Yamakoshi coming home fifth.

Slater, meanwhile, climbed one place to 10th on the opening lap, and then made up three more spots to seventh following the safety car intervention. He tried to pass Johnson for fifth at Brooklands, but contact on the exit sent the pair spinning around, with Rodin’s Gianmarco Pradel collecting Johnson and retiring on the spot with right-front suspension damage. 

Johnson and Slater both continued and salvaged points in 11th and 13th respectively. Argenti by Prema’s Lucas Fluxa profited from the melee to finish sixth, while Hitech’s Deagen Fairclough ended a largely difficult weekend on a high by recovering from the back of the grid to seventh.

Hillspeed’s Kanato Le was eighth ahead of Xcel’s Jack Sherwood, with Argenti’s Yuanpu Cui completing the top 10.