Elite Motorsport’s Isaac Phelps couldn’t have asked for a better start to his single-seater career, after claiming both pole positions and an excellent race one victory during the GB4 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, season opener on Saturday at Donington Park. Ary Bansal and Alex Berg were the winners on the second day, but it was Hillspeed’s Dan Guinchard that left the East Midlands as the early championship leader.
Race one
Phelps made the most of his pole position to stretch an immediate lead on lap one, with his cause aided when Taylor and Bansal made the lightest of contact at Redgate, forcing both into the pits and promoting Stefan Bostandjiev and Guinchard into the top-three.
While Phelps streaked away, Guinchard dispatched Bostandjiev halfway around the opening tour, and then closed the 1.7 second gap to Phelps down to just over a second.
Phelps came on strong mid-race, extending his lead to three seconds, but with a lap to go he encountered traffic, allowing Guinchard to halve the gap. Phelps kept his cool though to cement an excellent start to life in single-seaters, crossing the line with a 1.3 second margin to the former Mercedes junior driver.
Elite’s Japanese-Greek contender Alex Kattoulas also had a great start to his season, climbing from seventh to the final step of the podium. Guinchard’s Hillspeed teammate Leandro Juncos claimed fourth after two superb late braking moves on Luke Hilton and Bostandjiev at the Melbourne Hairpin.
Douglas Motorsport’s Hilton completed the top-five, just ahead of teammate Enzo Hallman, who gained three spots during the 18-minute encounter. All 25 cars finished the first race of the season, with the new Tatuus MSV GB4-025 cars continuing GB4’s tradition of delivering exciting single-seater racing.
Race two
Bansal started from third on the grid and needed a strong race to make amends for his Redgate drama on the first lap yesterday. And he did just that, by taking the lead around the outside of his pole sitting teammate Isaac Phelps at the same turn as his race one misfortune.
Having set the fastest lap of the race when running in clear air at the tail of the field yesterday, Bansal showed just as much pace to romp away at the front this time around. By the mid-point of the 18-minute contest, his margin to Phelps was over six seconds, allowing him to ease off in the final stages to take the flag four seconds clear.
Race one winner Phelps was second to maintain his position at the top of the standings, with the third Elite driver of Alex Kattoulas completing a podium clean-sweep for Eddie Ives’ team.
Hillspeed duo Leandro Juncos and Guinchard were fourth and fifth, with the former replicating some of his race one moves at the Melbourne Hairpin as he climbed up from sixth, with Fortec’s front row starter Jack Taylor completing the top-six, just half a second behind Guinchard.
Race three
For 2025, the top-12 drivers from qualifying are reversed on the starting grid for the final race, putting Berg at the head of the pack this afternoon.
The Canadian, son of former F1 racer Allen Berg, made an ideal start to lead the pack on the first lap, but from there on came under heavy pressure from Arden’s Leon Wilson. The pair were separated by less than a second throughout, but Wilson’s threat came to an end on the penultimate lap when Juncos, on another charge and after yet more overtakes at the Melbourne Hairpin, finally attempted a move too far and made contact with the Arden.
That gave Berg breathing room at the front, while the incident dropped Wilson to eighth and Juncos to 14th. The drama promoted Douglas Motorsport’s Enzo Hallman to second and Pace Performance’s Stefan Bostandjiev to third, netting a podium in both driver and team’s first weekend in single-seaters.
Amidst the drama, Guinchard’s strong run to fourth was enough to hand him the championship lead, while race one winner Bansal went from tenth on the grid to fifth ahead of teammate Kattoulas.
Guinchard holds a two point margin at the top of the table after the first three races, with Phelps second and Kattoulas third. Eight points cover the lead three drivers at this early stage in the season.
The first weekend of GB4’s new era with the new Tatuus MSV GB4-025 car produced three different winners and featured seven different drivers on the podium across the event.
