Rocco Coronel secured a sensational double victory in his home event at Zandvoort, as he shared the spoils with Alfie Slater during the Ginetta Junior Championship’s trip to the Netherlands for the fifth round of the 20th anniversary season (26-27 July).
Qualifying
As the Junior Championship contested its first overseas event for 19 years, it was home hero Coronel (R Racing) who charged to the top of the timesheets in qualifying. A stunning lap secured him pole position by almost seven tenths of a second.
Silverstone pole-sitter Torrin Byrne (Pace Performance) produced another impressive qualifying display to finish up second ahead of R Racing team-mates Alfie Slater and Scott Kin Lindblom, with Elite Motorsport duo Fred Green and Ethan Carney rounding out the overall top six.
Race One
Coronel executed a perfect start from pole position to lead the field though the early stages of the opening race. Byrne’s hold on second was short-lived however, as Slater, Lindblom and then Green worked their way ahead through the opening couple of laps.
The battle at the front intensified as the race developed and the first challenge for the lead came at the start of lap four, as Lindblom dived down the inside of both Coronel and Slater into Tarzan. The Swede slid wide exiting the corner though and went back to third behind his team-mates.
Positions continued to change through the lap, before Lindblom, Slater and Green sensationally went into Tarzan three-abreast to start lap five. Slater completed a double move into the process to rise up to second, although by the end of the lap it was Green’s turn to lead the battle.
All the action behind him had allowed Coronel to build a gap at the front. The pack behind calmed down for a few laps though and edged their way back onto the tail of the leader, setting up a grandstand finish as Coronel led Green, Slater and Lindblom onto the last lap.
Green made a bold move around the outside through turn one, but Coronel fought to stay in front. That was crucial, as he led the remainder of the lap to take the win and move his victory tally into double figures for the season so far.
There was less than a tenth of a second in it though as Green followed his title rival home, while Slater just edged out Lindblom to make a welcome return to the podium. Max Cuthbert (R Racing) finished up fifth overall, having passed Byrne with three laps to go.
Cuthbert had been involved in a thrilling early duel with George Proudford-Nalder (MDD Racing) before breaking clear and joining the lead group. Proudford-Nalder went on to lead a mammoth battle over seventh, with a great defensive performance netting him the spot.
After securing a season’s best seventh in qualifying, Revie Lake (Elite Motorsport) was running in eighth after mid-distance before an unfortunate spin lost him ground. Dutch racer Felipe Reijs (R Racing) took full advantage to move up to eighth at the finish, securing him a maiden top ten finish on home tarmac.
Colin Cronin (Elite Motorsport) climbed forward from 15th on the grid to finish up ninth on the road ahead of Raul Zunzarren (MKH Racing). A tough opening few laps for Carney saw him drop from sixth on the grid to 14th at one stage, but he fought back to 11th in the closing laps ahead of Jarrett Clark (R Racing).
Post-race however, Cronin, Zunzarren and Clark were handed one position penalties after being deemed to have forced another driver off the track during the race. Therefore, the revised result saw Carney promoted to ninth ahead of Cronin and Zunzarren, with Clark in 13th behind Harry Bartle (Pace Performance).
Emmilio Del Grosso (Elite Motorsport) and Max Murray (ProjectR) were next up, as Lake recovered from his spin to finish 16th ahead of Joshua Henry on his first start since switching teams to Elite Motorsport. Henry Cameron (Fox Motorsport), Josh Watts (Tim Gray Motorsport) and Noah Young (Performance One) completed the points finishers.
Race Two
Byrne started the second race of the weekend from pole position courtesy of setting the best ‘second fastest’ time in qualifying. While he led the field into Tarzan for the first time, a good run out of the corner meant Coronel was quickly into the lead.
The opening lap unfortunately went downhill for Byrne from there, as he lost further places to Green and Lindblom before he found himself on the outside of the pack through turn nine and ended his race in the gravel trap. Slater moved up to fourth ahead of Proudford-Nalder and Clark.
Green dived down the inside of Coronel into Tarzan on lap two to try and take the lead, but Coronel nipped back ahead exiting the corner. Next time round Green tried the outside line, but his efforts only resulted in him opening the door for Lindblom to move through into second.
Slater went on the offensive on lap four, briefly getting ahead of Green exiting the banked turn three, before eventually making a move stick through turn nine for third. Green attempted to fight back on the next lap, but Cuthbert took advantage to take fourth place from him.
Soon after, the safety car came out with Young and Watts having pulled off track into retirement. It ended up with a final one-lap shootout to the finish, with Coronel leading the way. Fortunately for the Red Bull Junior Team ace, the last action happened in his mirrors as he secured his 11th win of the season.
Slater put his nose down the inside of Lindblom exiting turn eight for second, but Cuthbert got a fantastic run on both and executed a stunning double move. As he went on to secure his best result of the season in second, Slater followed him home to complete an R Racing one-two-three.
Clark was on course for fourth exiting the final corner, however, a dramatic finish saw Green and Lindblom draft their way past on the final sprint to the chequered flag, with just 0.091s splitting the trio over the line. Clark still secured a maiden top six race finish, though.
Proudford-Nalder was seventh ahead of Cronin, Lake and Zunzarren, with those three having enjoyed an entertaining battle through the race. Ethan Lennon (Pace Performance), who had been battling for the top ten before a retirement in race one, was 11th on the road from Del Grosso.
This time round, Lake, Zunzarren and Lennon were handed one position penalties after being deemed to have forced another driver off the track during the race. The updated result therefore had Zunzarren in ninth from Lake, with Carney promoted to 11th ahead of Lennon and Del Grosso.
After dropping back to 21st after an early trip across the gravel trap, Reijs fought back well to 14th overall. Henry secured his best result of the season so far in 15th, with Murray recovering from a mid-race spin to take 16th from Cameron and Tim Gray Motorsport duo Matthew Chiwara and Katrina EE.
Race Three
With the grid for the final race of the weekend being set by the race two result, it was Coronel who started from pole. He converted that into the early lead, with a quiet start to the race seeing the first change in the top five come on the second lap as Lindblom passed Green for fourth into turn one.
The action ramped up on lap three though, as Slater first passed Cuthbert for second into turn 11, before a brilliant run exiting the last corner allowed him to slipstream past Coronel into the lead. Coronel briefly regained the advantage into turn eight on lap four, but Slater fought back into the next corner.
Coronel was edged wide on the outside in the process and fell back to fifth, with Lindblom the main beneficiary as he rose from fourth to second ahead of Cuthbert and Green. At that point the safety car was introduced after an incident behind resulted in Murray being stranded in the gravel.
When the racing resumed, a fired-up Coronel was immediately looking to regain the lost ground. As his rivals defended the inside line through turns eight and nine, an opportunistic move saw the championship leader sweep around the outside to move from fifth to second in a single move.
That tucked him up behind the leader Slater, with Lindblom third from Cuthbert, Proudford-Nalder and Green. The battle continued on lap seven as the leading trio went three abreast through turn one, and then again around the banked turn three.
Coronel emerged still in the lead, while contact lost Lindblom momentum and dropped him into the pack. Coronel and Slater enjoyed more side-by-side action later in the lap, however, the action was halted with the emergence of the red flags after a multi-car incident between Lindblom, Lennon, Reijs and Watts.
With the race result being counted back to the last fully completed lap, Slater was awarded his second win of the season so far from Coronel and Cuthbert for another R Racing podium lockout. Proudford-Nalder finished fourth on the road from Green, however, a post-race penalty switched their positions.
Cronin secured a weekend-best result of sixth ahead of Clark, Zunzarren and Lake. Bartle completed a tricky weekend with a great top ten finish from Byrne, with both drivers having been on an impressive charge through the race to each gain 11 positions from their grid spots.
Katrina EE celebrated her best-ever Ginetta Junior finish in 12th overall ahead of Del Grosso, the latter having received a one position penalty for overtaking before the line during a safety car restart. Chiwara was another to pick up a season’s best result in 14th from Henry, Cameron and Young.
In the Freshmans Cup, a class for car-racing rookies with no previous national-level karting experience, a triple victory for Lake has extended his current run to eight class wins in a row. Cameron finished second in all three races, as Young also picked up a couple of trophies.
Full race results can be found at getraceresults.com. All three races can be watched back at www.youtube.com/user/ginettatv.
The next round of the 2025 Ginetta Junior Championship season sees the series return to the British GT Championship package for three races on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit (23-24 August).