GB4: Red hot Bansal blasts to victory at Snetterton to close championship gap
Elite Motorsport’s Ary Bansal enjoyed his best day of the GB4 Championship season so far as he claimed both pole positions on offer in qualifying, and then led every lap of race one to clinch his second win of the campaign. The Indian driver held off teammate Isaac Phelps during the 10 lap contest on Saturday afternoon, with championship leader Dan Guinchard finishing third to maintain his standings lead.
Qualifying
Having topped the times in testing before the event, Bansal converted that pace into qualifying. Under clear blue skies, he scorched to a double pole position, his first GB4 poles.
In a closely fought session, he snatched race one pole from teammate Isaac Phelps right before the chequered flag. Bansal’s effort of 1m46.938s was just 0.012s quicker than Phelps, with Hillspeed duo Leandro Juncos and Guinchard next up. Douglas Motorsport’s Luke Hilton and KMR Sport’s Alex O’Grady completed the qualifying top-six for the race one grid.
For the race two grid, decided by each driver’s second quickest times from qualifying, Bansal secured his second pole, with his 1m47.051s effort being 0.048s ahead of Phelps, with Guinchard third ahead of Hilton, with Elite’s Alex Kattoulas and O’Grady completing the top-six.
Race one
Temperatures continued to climb ahead of race one, and Bansal made a good start from pole to move out of range of any potential lap one challenge. Phelps held onto second while Guinchard climbed to third off the line ahead of Hilton, with both passing an out of position Juncos in the opening seconds of the event.
Like in qualifying, Bansal and Phelps were evenly matched, with the pair rarely separated by more than half a second. Despite the pressure, Bansal crossed the line at the end of the race with a six tenth of a second margin to Phelps, while Guinchard kept the top two in check to secure third.
Hilton registered his best result of the season in fourth, while Juncos was penalised for starting out of position, his 10 second penalty promoting O’Grady and Kattoulas into the top-six. Thomas Ingram Hill (Fortec), Enzo Hallman (Douglas), Jack Taylor (Fortec) and Juncos completed the top-10 in the final classification.
Championship newcomers Flame Airikkala (Pace Performance) and Dudley Ruddock (Arden) kept their noses clean during their GB4 debuts, 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.
Bansal said: “I managed to nail the start and it was quite simple from there. Isaac was right behind all race and I had to keep tracks of him in my mirrors, and make sure he didn’t get too close! The tyres were quite difficult from the start due to the heat, I did a lot of burn outs around Coram before the start and that affected the rears a lot, so I was sliding a lot on the first few laps. I need to do the same again tomorrow, maybe with fewer burnouts!"
GB4 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Snetterton qualifying top-six result:
1. Ary Bansal, Elite Motorsport, 1m46.938s
2. Isaac Phelps, Elite Motorsport, +0.012s
3. Leandro Juncos, Hillspeed, +0.239s
4. Dan Guinchard, Hillspeed, +0.331s
5. Luke Hilton, Douglas Motorsport, +0.397s
6. Alex O'Grady, KMR Sport, +0.644s
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GB4 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Snetterton race one top-six 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
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GB4 Championship, drivers' championship standings after race 10 of 21:
1. Daniel Guinchard, Hillspeed, 212pts
2. Ary Bansal, Elite Motorsport, 181pts
3. Isaac Phelps, Elite Motorsport, 176pts
4. Alex Kattoulas, Elite Motorsport, 169pts
5. Alex O'Grady, KMR Sport, 147pts
6. Enzo Hallman, Douglas Motorsport, 143pts
Click here for full standings
GB4 Championship, teams' championship standings after race 10 of 21:
1. Elite Motorsport, 425pts
2. Hillspeed, 320pts
3. Douglas Motorsport, 306pts
4. Fortec Motorsports, 228pts
5. Graham Brunton Racing, 220pts
6. KMR Sport, 214pts
Click here for full standings
For more championship information, visit www.gb-4.net