Stewart wins Spa race three, Loake takes GB3 points lead

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Elite Motorsport’s Oliver Stewart made use of reversed-grid pole to win the third GB3 race at Spa-Francorchamps.

As all drivers in qualifying were within 103% of Callum Voisin’s pace, it meant the full 25-car grid was reversed for race three and put Stewart on pole ahead of Daniel Mavlyutov.

Stewart made a slow start and Mavlyutov took the lead, but then the positions changed again down the Kemmel Straight. Mavlyutov went off exiting Les Combes and dropped to the back, then on the run to Bruxelles there was another incident just after yellow flags were brought out.

Shawn Rashid and Zak Taylor collided and their cars then speared into the barriers, with the race promptly being put under safety car conditions.

Mavlyutov managed to complete the lap, and gained back one place as Matthew Rees then also retired. Alex Dunne and Callum Voisin climbed from 24th and 25th to 17th and 20th respectively, and made even more progress when racing resumed on lap four.

Joseph Loake tried passing Stewart for the lead straight away, but Stewart impressively held on and his defences kept Jarrod Waberski on their tail. There was drama at the end of the lap as Arthur Rogeon lost his front wing by hitting Michael Shin’s rear-left tyre, which meant he had to pit on lap five – after making it through Eau Rouge without hitting anyone and Shin’s race came to an end at La Source.

Stewart started to pull away from Loake and Waberski, while the pack was bunched up from fourth downwards. Two contenders were removed from the top 10 battle when Max Esterson spun down the order after contact from Noah Ping at Les Combes, and that left James Hedley pressuring Lucas Staico for fourth.

Hedley got his move done on lap eight, at which Ayato Iwasaki and Costa Toparis behind him were already under pressure from a charging Dunne. He passed Iwasaki on the penultimate lap for sixth, and Tymek Kucharczyk slipstreamed past Iwasaki too a lap later.

Meanwhile up front there was celebrations for Stewart, whose previous best result was a seventh place, as he won by 2.524 seconds over new championship leader Loake. He took over the top spot in the points table from Voisin, who finished 10th.

Race result (10 laps)