Home Formula 3GB3 Fletcher wins at Snetterton after Dalton fails to get away

Fletcher wins at Snetterton after Dalton fails to get away

by Peter Allen

Photo: BRDC F4

James Fletcher took victory in just his fourth race in BRDC Formula 4, capitalising after pole-sitter and championship leader Jake Dalton was left behind at the start of race one at Snetterton due to a driveshaft failure.

The entire field managed to miss the stationary car of Dalton at the start as Fletcher moved into the lead. He was followed by Matt Bell until the privateer went off track on lap three, allowing Seb Morris and Charlie Robertson through.

After winning a wheel-to-wheel battle with his predecessor as Ginetta Junior champion over second place, Robertson began closing the gap to Fletcher but was unable to challenge him. The Team KBS driver, who only joined the series last time out at Brands Hatch, took victory by two seconds over Robertson, who did enough to take the points lead away from Dalton.

Morris secured a return to the podium in third following his challenging Brands Hatch weekend, while Raoul Hyman was fourth. Latin American MGR duo Diego Menchaca and Pietro Fittipaldi were fifth and sixth respectively, but the former was disqualified for his car being underweight.

Behind Fittipaldi, Falco Wauer was promoted to sixth in the second KBS car, ahead of Sennan Fielding and Bell, who will start race two from the reverse grid pole. Struan Moore and Jake Hughes completed the top ten, charging from 17th and 22nd on the grid respectively.

Race results
Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1 James Fletcher Team KBS 10 laps in 18:51.972
2 Charlie Robertson HHC Motorsport +2.085
3 Seb Morris Hillspeed +4.878
4 Raoul Hyman HHC Motorsport +7.532
5 Pietro Fittipaldi MGR Motorsport +14.144
6 Falco Wauer Team KBSports +14.958
7 Sennan Fielding Douglas Motorsport +16.520
8 Matt Bell MattRBell Racing Team E-Lites +18.337
9 Struan Moore Hillspeed +18.406
10 Jake Hughes Lanan Racing +19.799
11 Ross Gunn Motionsport +27.057
12 James Greenway Frank T Greenway Racing +30.366
13 Rahul Raj Mayer Hillspeed +35.821
14 Simon Rudd Motionsport +36.235
15 Daniel Headlam Lanan Racing +42.444
16 Malgosia Rdest Douglas Motorsport +1:01.538
17 Jack Barlow Sean Walkinshaw Racing +1:02.398
18 Zou Si Rui Sean Walkinshaw Racing +1:54.147
19 Matthew Graham Sean Walkinshaw Racing +1 lap
Not classified
  Gustavo Lima HHC Motorsport 3 laps
  Jake Dalton MGR Motorsport 0 laps
  Diego Menchaca MGR Motorsport DSQ