Hilton leads opening day of GB4’s Silverstone test

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Douglas Motorsport’s Luke Hilton was fastest on the first of two days of GB4 testing on the Silverstone Grand Prix layout.

Hilton set a best lap of 2m00.876s in the third and final session to finish 0.139s clear of Elite Motorsport’s Alex Kattoulas, whose team-mate Isaac Phelps was 0.4s further adrift in third.

Elite’s Arayaman Bansal led the opening session with a 2m07.621s, with Hilton 0.837 seconds behind and Isaac Phelps 1.5s shy of his team-mate Bansal’s pace in third.

Hilton lowered the testing benchmark by over four seconds on his first lap in session two, and he then improved by another 1.4s with his next effort only for Phelps to edge him by 0.08s moments later.

Hilton reclaimed the advantage by 0.7s but Kattoulas set a 2m01.245s to take over at the top by 0.230s with 17 minutes remaining.

A red flag period interrupted proceedings, and Kattoulas’s time was not challenged once the session resumed with four minutes remaining. Hilton and Phelps remained in second and third, with Bansal the final driver within a second of the pace in fourth.

Hilton set his test-topping time 12 minutes into session three, which was brought to a premature end by a red flag with two minutes remaining.

KMR Sport’s Megan Bruce set a personal best to finish 0.636s behind Hilton in second, with Kattoulas, Alex O’Grady, Fortec Motorsport’s Jack Taylor and Phelps all close behind her. 

Despite not improving in session three, Kattoulas and Phelps maintained second and third in the day’s overall classification, with Bruce climbing to fourth ahead her team-mate O’Grady and Taylor who both also set personal bests in the final session.

Bansal’s session two best left him seventh ahead of Fortec’s Luca Magnussen and Pace Performance’s Josh McLean, with just over 1s covering the top nine.

Day one results