Rodin’s Alex Ninovic secures first GB3 win at Zandvoort

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Alex Ninovic converted his first pole into a maiden victory in GB3’s second contest at Zandvoort.

The Rodin Motorsport driver kept Xcel Motorsport’s Patrick Heuzenroeder at bay to win by 0.566 seconds. Heuzenroeder extended his points lead, while Hitech GP’s Deagen Fairclough scored his second podium of the weekend in third.

Fairclough bogged down from the inside of the front row at the start and slipped to fourth behind Heuzenroeder and Argenti Motorsport with Prema’s Reza Seewoorthun, allowing Ninovic to gain a clear lead.

Nikita Johnson also tried to pass his Hitech team-mate but was forced slightly onto the grass by Seewooruthun and instead had to defend against Argenti’s Yuanpu Cui.

Fairclough immediately went on the offensive to snatch third from Seewooruthun into the turn three banking on lap one, and soon made it a three-way train for the lead.

He had a look to the inside of Heuzenroeder at the beginning of the fifth tour, but his challenge faded from there, eventually coming home 2.5s behind the front two. Meanwhile, Heuzenroeder kept pace with Ninovic but was unable to create an overtaking opportunity.

Seewooruthun bettered his result from race one with fourth at the chequered flag, with Johnson and Cui finishing close behind.

Rodin’s Gianmarco Pradel resisted early pressure from Velocity Racing Development’s Hugo Schwarze and then passed JHR Development’s Noah Lisle to finish seventh.

Argenti’s Lucas Fluxa climbed five places to ninth, while Elite Motorsport’s Will Macintyre swept around the outside of Pradel and Schwarze at the start before slipping back to 10th at the finish.

Schwarze dropped back to 12th behind Hitech’s Keanu Al Azhari, and Xcel’s Jack Sherwood had a frenetic early battle with Rodin’s Abbi Pulling for 13th after climbing from the back of the grid but was then shuffled back to 16th late on.

Race results (16 laps)