Flack flies to victory in Silverstone thriller

Flack flies to victory in Silverstone thriller

31 July 2022

Douglas Motorsport’s Marcos Flack claimed his first GB3 win in a thrilling reverse grid contest at Silverstone.

Flack finished over six seconds ahead of the field, with some stunning action up and down the grid. Roberto Faria was second for Carlin, while Joel Granfors stormed from 18th at the start to the podium.

There was drama right from the off, as Fortec’s front-row starter Zak Taylor blasted into the lead, while a fast-starting Branden Oxley shot up to second but made contact with the Douglas Motorsport car of Tommy Smith at Becketts on the first lap, spinning him to the tail of the field.

Flack, from sixth on the grid, got into Smith’s slipstream down the Hangar Straight and passed him at  Stowe, and then set about challenging Taylor. He was right with him at The Loop, and made a move stick at Brooklands.

From there, the Aussie was able to shoot into the distance, while almost every other car was seemingly in a scrap for second place. Flack’s lead regularly increased by large chunks as the battles went on behind him, with Taylor and Nick Gilkes initially holding the podium places, while Granfors had replicated his lap one efforts from the previous races to climb into the top-10.

The Taylor/Gilkes battle came to an early end on lap four as the Canadian spun at Vale, by which time Granfors had made even more improvements to climb to fourth, while Faria had surged from 13th to second on lap five ahead of Taylor.

Granfors had challenged Faria at this point, but was squeezed on the Wellington Straight, keeping him in fourth.

But undeterred, Granfors passed teammate Taylor for third at Stowe on lap seven, making it 15 positions gained throughout the contest.

While the podium positons wouldn’t change for the remainder of the contest, behind them it was still a full on scrap, with Callum Voisin finding his way from 19th on the grid to fourth, while title challenger Luke Browning blasted his Hitech car to fifth from 20th on the grid.

Matthew Rees bounced up and down the order and took sixth from 12th on the grid, with Smith seventh for Douglas Motorsport.

Fortec’s Mikkel Grundtvig claimed eighth ahead of Arden’s David Morales while Taylor ultimately completed the top-10, having run inside the podium spots for more than half the lap.

The result further extends Granfors’ championship lead as the field head to Brands Hatch on 10-11 September.

GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Silverstone race three provisional result:
1. Marcos Flack, Douglas Motorsport, 10 laps
2. Roberto Faria, Carlin, +6.176s
3. Joel Granfors, Fortec Motorsport, +8.132s
4. Callum Voisin, Carlin, +9.232s
5. Luke Browning, Hitech GP, +9.761s
6. Matthew Rees, JHR Developments, +10.548s
7. Tommy Smith, Douglas Motorsport, +15.053s
8. Mikkel Grundtvig, Fortec Motorsport, +16.522s
9. David Morales, Arden Motorsport, +19.150s
10. Zak Taylor, Fortec Motorsport, +19.642s
11. Javier Sagrera, Carlin, +19.789s
12. Branden Oxley, Chris Dittmann Racing, +19.906s
13. Tom Lebbon, Elite Motorsport, +20.447s
14. Bryce Aron, Hitech GP, +20.555s
15. Cian Shields, Hitech GP, +21.013s
16. Nick Gilkes, Hillspeed, +24.249s
17. Ayrton Ori, Chris Dittmann Racing, +27.866s
18. Nico Christodoulou, Arden Motorsport, +2m09.310s
DNF. Max Esterson, Douglas Motorsport, 8 laps
DNF. John Bennett, Elite Motorsport, 7 laps
DNF. Alex Connor, Arden Motorsport, 7 laps
DNF. James Hedley, Elite Motorsport, 3 laps

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