Elite Motorsport's Ary Bansal claimed his second GB4 win of the season in race one at Snetterton, as he converted pole position into a lights to flag victory on Saturday afternoon.
Bansal made a good start from the front of the grid, and controlled the race from there, though teammate Isaac Phelps kept him honest throughout, and was never more than three quarters of a second behind him. Bansal had led by over half a second at the end of the first lap, though Phelps brought that down to under half a second next time around.
The evenly matched duo lapped with basically the same margin for several more laps, with the ultimate winning margin being 0.642s, the largest the gap ever got. Phelps settled for second ahead of Hillspeed's championship leader Dan Guinchard, who moved into third at the expense of teammate Leandro Juncos on the first lap.
Douglas Motorsport's Luke Hilton took fourth, his best single-seater result, having run with the top-three early on, while Juncos was fifth on the road, but picked up a 10 second time penalty for an out of position start. The Argentine driver jumped forward from third place before the lights went out, though the subsequent recovery actually lost him places off the line.
Juncos' penalty promoted KMR's Alex O'Grady to fifth and Elite's Alex Kattoulas into sixth, the pair enjoying a race-long battle and separated by less than four tenths of a second crossing the line.
Fortec's Tom Ingram Hill registered his best 'main' race result with seventh ahead of Douglas Motorsport's Enzo Hallman. From 12th on the grid, Jack Taylor (Fortec) climbed to ninth while Juncos salvaged the final spot inside the top-10, despite his penalty.
Championship newcomers Flame Airikkala (Pace Performance) and Dudley Ruddock (Arden) kept their noses clean during their GB4 debut, with Airikkala completing the points scorers in 20th position, one place ahead of Ruddock.
Two more GB4 Championship races will take place tomorrow, at 10.05 and 16.20 respectively.
GB4 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Snetterton race one provisional result:
1. Ary Bansal, Elite Motorsport, 10 laps
2. Isaac Phelps, Elite Motorsport, +0.642s
3. Dan Guinchard, Hillspeed, +1.727s
4. Luke Hilton, Douglas Motorsport, +3.269s
5. Alex O'Grady, KMR Sport, +7.091s
6. Alex Kattoulas, Elite Motorsport, +7.486s
7. Thomas Ingram Hill, Fortec Motorsports, +9.094s
8. Enzo Hallman, Douglas Motorsport, +9.941s
9. Jack Taylor, Fortec Motorsports, +12.426s
10. Leandro Juncos, Hillspeed, +13.957s
11. Alex Berg, Graham Brunton Racing, +16.316s
12. Dayton Coulthard, Douglas Motorsport, +16.685s
13. Josh McLean, Pace Performance, +19.553s
14. Stefan Bostandjiev, Pace Performance, +19.823s
15. Callum Baxter, Graham Brunton Racing, +20.780s
16. Leon Wilson, Arden Motorsport, +21.336s
17. Megan Bruce, KMR Sport, +23.014s
18. Ava Dobson, Arden Motorsport, +23.690s
19. Jason Pribyl, ADM, +24.536s
20. Flame Airikkala, Pace Performance, +34.925s
21. Dudley Ruddock, Arden Motorsport, +39.570s
22. Holly Miall, Fox Motorsport, +39.688s
23. Lily-May Watkins, KMR Sport, +51.382s
24. Caitlyn McDaniel, Fox Motorsport, +1m00.259s
