Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
JHR Developments’ Joseph Loake has further extended his GB3 points lead at Silverstone after inheriting victories in races one and two of the weekend from John Bennett on Sunday evening.
Bennett initially won Saturday’s opening contest ahead of Loake in treacherous conditions, but was investigated afterwards for passing Loake off the track at Copse on the first lap.
He again beat Loake in race two on Sunday but was investigated again after an early collision with Alex Dunne, caused by Bennett sliding on a damp patch while defending from the Hitech GP driver.
The race was further complicated by Loake’s team-mate Matthew Rees winning on the road but then having a 10-second penalty applied to his race time for jumping the start.
Officials decided to reverse the top two positions in race one by classifying Bennett in second behind Loake. Bennett was demoted three places to fourth in the race two results for the contact with Dunne, giving Loake another win and promoting McKenzy Cresswell and Callum Voisin to second and third.
Several other penalties were given out in race one, with JHR’s David Morales demoted one place to 11th for overtaking Fortec Motorsports’ Jarrod Waberski off the track and six other drivers given 5s penalties for not respecting yellow flags.
One of those was Douglas Motorsport’s Tymek Kucharczyk, who lost his double pole earlier in the weekend after his car – along with that of team-mate Lucas Staico – was excluded from qualifying for a non-compliance issue with the halo.
The amended results leave Loake 31 points clear of Voisin and Arden VRD’s James Hedley a further 21 points behind, with Rees fourth and Kucharczyk fifth in the standings.
“It’s something I couldn’t have expected, especially after qualifying,” Loake told Formula Scout. “I didn’t really get a lap in during qualifying, that’s what put us out of position. I knew it would be so tricky to fight through and win the races, but we’ve picked up two wins. We’ve extended by quite a few points in the championship now. Looking forward to Spa.”