Ninovic claims GB3 lead with lights-to-flag Spa win

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Ninovic scored his second GB3 victory in a disrupted opening race of the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps.

In a contest which featured two safety car periods, Ninovic managed a final lap restart to complete a lights-to-flag triumph by two seconds ahead of Velocity Racing Development’s Hugo Schwarze and Hillspeed’s Kanato Le.

Ninovic started from pole, while a three-place grid penalty for an incident at the previous round demoted his team-mate Gianmarco Pradel to fifth.

Schwarze was therefore promoted to the front row, but he was beaten into La Source once the action got underway by Xcel Motorsport’s pre-event points leader Patrick Heuzenroeder. Ninovic, meanwhile, gained a clear lead.

After a side-by-side battle between Schwarze and Heuzenroeder through Eau Rouge and Raidillion, JHR Developments’ Noah Lisle and Elite Motorsport’s Will Macintyre made the squabble a four-wide affair on the Kemmel Straight, with the latter ending up on the grass.

Lisle prevailed before Les Combes to get into second ahead of Schwarze and Macintyre, while Heuzenroeder was shuffled back to fifth. The battle allowed Ninovic to build an extended lead, but that was eradicated by the safety car on completion of lap one due to JHR’s Divy Dandan retiring with front-right damage.

Racing resumed on lap four, with Ninovic quickly edging away once more and Schwarze taking second away from Lisle. Macintyre passed Lisle for third at the beginning on the next tour, as the top two escaped up the road.

The race was neutralised again when Hitech GP’s Nikita Johnson and Xcel’s Jack Sherwood collided at La Source, and there was only enough allotted time for one more lap when the safety car was withdrawn.

Ninovic romped clear on the final tour while a frenetic battle raged throughout the rest of the top 10. Macintyre challenged Schwarze into Les Combes but ended up off the road, and Le also ended up missing the corner while trying to drive around the outside of Lisle.

Schwarze remained ahead and kept second until the flag, as Macintyre slipped back to fifth behind Le and Lisle. Pradel snatched sixth from Heuzenroeder, who conceded the championship lead to Ninovic.

Hillspeed’s Freddie Slater climbed from the back of the grid to 15th on the opening lap, one place behind Hitech’s Deagen Fairclough, who had also made up ground from 21st. Slater overtook Fairclough following the first safety car period, and moved up to 10th ahead of his team-mate Hiyu Yamakoshi just before the second race interruption.

Slater continued to make progress intially on the final lap by challenging Heuzenroeder for seventh, but then lost out to JHR’s Kai Daryanani and Fairclough and finished 10th.

Race results (9 laps)