Elite Motorsport's Fred Green controlled the opening GB4 race of the season to take victory on his single-seater debut.
The McLaren Elite Pathway driver controlled proceedings to take a lights-to-flag victory ahead of his fast-starting teammate Emmilio Valentino Del Grosso. The Venezuelan made a great start to jump ahead of the Hillspeed of Enzo Hallman and the KMR Sport of Alex O’Grady through the first turn.
Del Grosso would briefly challenge his teammate for the race lead, showing his nose down the inside at Stowe on the second lap to no avail. Instead, he found himself coming under some pressure from O’Grady behind into Vale but was able to hold on.
The main action of the second lap came in the battle for fourth between Jason Smyth (Douglas Motorsport) and Thomas Ingram Hill (Fortec Motorsports). Smyth aggressively squeezed Ingram Hill to the left-side grass heading down the Wellington Straight, but the Fortec driver was unmoved, holding his line to complete the move down the inside into Brooklands.
This left Smyth vulnerable on the run to Copse at the start of the third lap, with Hallman – who had dropped to sixth following his poor start – trying to force the issue in his Hillspeed. The move didn’t come off and instead opened the door for Smyth’s Douglas teammate Dayton Coulthard to get himself into the top-six on the run into Maggots.
Coulthard and Hallman were teammates last season at Douglas and there was clearly a lot of respect between the pair as they treated spectators to a hard but fair battle for the remainder of the third lap, with Coulthard eventually coming out on top.
The race was neutralised by a safety car intervention following the spin for Charlie Myers at Farm curve on the fourth lap, with racing getting back underway at the start of lap seven. Green expertly controlled the restart, gapping Del Grosso and strolling away to take his first victory of the season and his maiden single-seater win.
Two seconds behind him, Del Grosso made it an Elite one-two finish with O’Grady completing the podium, a further second adrift. Just two tenths separated the Irishman from Ingram Hill in fourth, with the Fortec driver unable to make a late move for the last spot on the rostrum.
The Douglas duo of Smyth and Coulthard completed the top-six, with the former able to hold off the pressure from his teammate on his GB4 debut, and Hallman was seventh for Hillspeed.
Luke Hilton took the chequered flag in eighth after a remarkable recovery drive from 28th on the grid. The Briton had originally taken double pole but was disqualified for not slowing for multiple waved yellows in qualifying, starting from the rear.
He made up 11 places in the first two laps and continued his decisive charge to make up 20 positions by the flag, including a fantastic overtake around the outside of Torrin Byrne (Pace Performance) at Maggots for eighth. Byrne and Connor Willis (Hillspeed) completed the top-10.
There was last-lap contact at Copse for Demitri Nolan (Hillspeed) and Jordyn Martin (Fortec) as they battled for 17th, causing Nolan to retire with rear-right suspension damage and Martin to drop to 22nd at the flag.
GB4 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Silverstone, provisional race one result:
1. Fred Green, Elite Motorsport, 9 laps
2. Emmilio Valentino Del Grosso, Elite Motorsport, +2.147s
3. Alex O’Grady, KMR Sport, +3.136s
4. Thomas Ingram Hill, Fortec Motorsports, +3.331s
5. Jason Smyth, Douglas Motorsport, +4.259s
6. Dayton Coulthard, Douglas Motorsport, +5.017s
7. Enzo Hallman, Hillspeed, +5.449s
8. Luke Hilton, Nitrous Competitions ADM Racing, +7.500s
9. Torrin Byrne, Pace Performance, +9.148s
10. Connor Willis, Hillspeed, +9.587s
11. Romuald Bocquet, Scorpio Motorsport, +9.976s
12. Josh McLean, Pace Performance, +13.276s
13. Archie Davies, Scorpio Motorsport, +13.800s
14. Matan Achituv, Elite Motorsport, +14.130s
15. Franciszek Cegielski (R), Fortec Motorsports, +14.256s
16. Lily-May Watkins, KMR Sport, +16.815s
17. Caitlyn McDaniel, Nitrous Competitions ADM Racing, +17.407s
18. John O’Donnell, Pace Performance, +18.951s
19. Holly Miall, KMR Sport, +19.499s
20. Conor Grant (R), Douglas Motorsport, +19.886s
21. Jasser Iskander (R), Fox Motorsport, +20.455s
22. Jordyn Martin (R), Fortec Motorsports, +22.478s
23. Jamie Leverton (R), Idola Motorsport, +23.079s
24. Archie Bullard (R), Fox Motorsport, +23.572s
25. Solenn Amrouche, Arden Motorsport, +24.448s
26. Enzo Rujugiro (R), Fox Motorsport, +26.120s
27. Michael Koh (R), Arden Motorsport, +34.251s
DNF. Demitri Nolan, Hillspeed, 8 laps
DNF. Charlie Myers (R), Arden Motorsport, 3 laps
