Home Formula 4GB4 Webster wins again in red-flagged GB4 race two at Donington Park

Webster wins again in red-flagged GB4 race two at Donington Park

by Steve Whitfield

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Evans GP’s Cooper Webster took his second GB4 win of the weekend in a heavily-disrupted race two at Donington Park.

As in Saturday’s contest, Webster converted pole into a clear lead, while Fox Motorsport’s Liam McNeilly made another poor getaway from the outside of the front row and found himself sandwiched between Fortec Motorsports’ Colin Queen and the fast-starting Lucas Blakeley.

Queen used the inside line to snatch second ahead of Blakeley and McNeilly, with a number of opening-lap incidents bringing out the safety car.

McNeilly’s team-mate Sid Smith was tapped into a spin by Aditya Kulkarni approaching Old Hairpin and, after trying to rejoin, became beached in the gravel.

KMR Sport’s Jack Clifford also spun into retirement at Macleans following contact from VRD’s Zack Ping, while Elite Motorsport’s Theo Micouris and Kulkarni collided at the hairpin with the latter suffering front-wing damage,

Racing resumed for only one corner on lap five, with McNeilly snatching third from Blakeley, who also lost a further place to Elite’s Finn Harrison. But a collision at Redgate between Lexie Belk and Thomas Lee put the latter out and caused a second safety car period.

The action got back underway on lap seven, with Webster pulling out a 0.8-second advantage over the next two laps before Ping suffered a huge crash exiting Macleans, spinning to the inside of the circuit and slamming backwards into the tyre barriers.

That brought out the red flags, and then an early chequered flag. Webster took his fourth win of the season ahead of Queen and McNeilly, with Harrison fourth in only his second GB4 start.

Blakeley was fifth ahead of Burgoyne Jr, with Micouris coming home seventh. Despite missing most of his front wing, Kulkarni passed GBR’s Sebastian Murray for eighth before the red flag, with privateer Dylan Hotchin completing the top 10.

Race result (7 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Cooper Webster Evans GP 14m22.143s
2 Colin Queen Fortec Motorsports +0.647s
3 Liam McNeilly Fox Motorsport +1.680s
4 Finn Harrison Elite Motorsport +2.517s
5 Lucas Blakeley KMR Sport +2.977s
6 Harry Burgoyne Graham Brunton Racing +4.406s
7 Theo Micouris Elite Motorsport +5.126s
8 Aditya Kulkarni Fortec Motorsports +6.696s
9 Sebastian Murray Graham Brunton Racing +7.144s
10 Dylan Hotchin Dylan Hotchin Racing +11.788s
11 Lexie Belk Belk Racing +16.255s
Ret Zack Ping VRD Racing
Ret Daniel Hickey Fortec Motorsports
Ret Thomas Lee Evans GP
Ret Jack Clifford KMR Sport
Ret Sid Smith Fox Motorsport
Fastest lap: Webster, 1m29.225s

Championship standings
1 Tom Mills 505   2 Webster 464   3 McNeilly 407   4 Queen 355   5 Burgoyne 243   6 Kulkarni 238   7 Clifford 204   8 Smith 198   9 Jeremy Fairbairn 190   10 Ruhaan Alva 165