Le recovers from slow start at Spa to take maiden GB3 win

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Hillspeed’s Kanato Le bounced back from a poor start to win GB3’s shortened second race of the day at Spa-Francorchamps.

Having lined up from pole, Le initially slipped to fourth before fighting his way back to the front. He eventually finished 1.222 seconds ahead of Hitech GP’s Nikita Johnson, who made up four places.

Johnson originally qualified third but was handed a three-place grid penalty following his race one clash with Xcel Motorsport’s Jack Sherwood.

That moved new points leader Alex Ninovic up one place to third on the grid, and he took the lead into La Source ahead of  Rodin Motorsport team-mate Gianmarco Pradel at the start, while Hiyu Yamamoski climbed one spot to third ahead of team-mate Le.

Hitech’s Keanu Al Alzhari moved past the Hillspeed duo and made it a three-wide battle for the lead with Ninovic and Pradel on the Kemmel Straight. Ninovic prevailed into Les Combes, Yamakoshi and Le swept around the outside into second and third, while Pradel was shuffled back to fifth behind Al Azhari.

Le took second away from Yamakoshi on lap two, used DRS to reel in Ninovic on the Kemmel Straight on the next tour, and then took over first place on the run to Les Combes on lap four. At the same time as the lead changed hands, Al Azhari slipstreamed by Yamakoshi into third, and Johnson dispatched Pradel for fifth.

Having swiftly pulled out a 1.1s advantage to exit DRS range, Le remained ahead until the race was concluded by the chequered flag being waved two laps early.

Johnson continued to make progress, passing Yamakoshi, Al Alzhari and Ninovic in successive laps on the Kemmel Straight to record his second podium of the season.

Ninovic came home 1.2s behind Johnson in third to grow his points gap. Al Azhari lost out to Yamakoshi into La Source on the last lap, but moved back past a couple of corners later before finishing fourth.

Elite’s Will Macintyre dropped behind Johnson early on, but eventually passed Pradel to take sixth. The pair might have been caught by Freddie Slater had the race continued for its scheduled duration.

The Hillspeed part-timer fought his way from the back of the grid to 11th by the start of lap four and soon passed Xcel Motorsport’s title contender Patrick Heuzenroeder and JHR Developments’ Kai Daryanani. He picked off Xcel’s Dion Gowda for eighth on the final lap, and was 1.5s behind Pradel on taking the flag.

It was one place higher than Slater managed in the opening contest – where he was promoted to ninth following a post-race penalty for Deagen Fairclough. The Hitech racer was penalised five seconds for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, dropping him 10 places to 19th.

In race two Fairclough started one place ahead of Slater in 22nd, and climbed to 11th ahead of Heuzenroeder. He has slipped to sixth in the standings ahead of Sunday’s reversed-grid contest.

Race results (9 laps)