King and Lynn on the podium at Spa in Pirelli-backed GP2British GP2 Series racers Jordan King and Alex Lynn enjoyed strong weekends at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, both making it onto the feature race podium.
King finished second after battling with Pierre Gasly for the win, while Lynn raced well on the championship’s Pirelli tyres to take third, having started from eighth on the grid. It was a harder race for their compatriot Oliver Rowland from 15th on the grid, but he survived final-corner contact to claim the final point in 10th.
In the sprint race, the trio raced together. After dropping back on the first lap, Lynn passed King with two laps remaining, before they and Rowland all overtook another driver on the final tour to take positions six to eight. Unfortunately for Lynn and King, they were among seven drivers that were later penalised for using DRS on the first lap, promoting Rowland to sixth.
In the standings, Rowland remains fifth, with King and Lynn now directly behind him, with 17 points separating them. The season continues at Monza in Italy this weekend.
Aitken gets first win in Pirelli-supported GP3 at SpaBritain’s Jack Aitken scored his first win the GP3 Series in the second of the two races at Spa-Francorchamps, after Arden International team-mate Jake Dennis impressed with his management of the Pirelli tyres in a charging drive to second place in race one.
Dennis had started 13th on the grid for the opening contest, but climbed to fourth after avoiding a first-corner incident. He then enjoyed superior pace to his rivals late on to move up to second and finish not far behind the winner.
Aitken also made great strides in the race from 14th to fifth, putting him fourth on the grid for race two. He moved up into the lead in the first two laps and then survived three separate safety car restarts to take victory. Dennis made up a couple of places to finish fifth.
It was a tough weekend for Jake Hughes and Matt Parry, who were involved in incidents together in both races. Anglo-Thai driver Alex Albon meanwhile lost ground in the title race after ninth and 10th place finishes. He is now third in the standings, with Parry, Aitken, Dennis and Hughes occupying positions five to eight moving on to Monza this weekend.
Pirelli Porsche wins shared at Croft ahead of title deciderThe Sylatech Porsche Club Championship with Pirelli race wins at Croft were shared between Pete Morris and Mike Johnson as the fight for the overall title closed up ahead of this weekend’s deciding races at Oulton Park.
Morris claimed pole position in qualifying and made a good start to the opening race to lead Mark McAleer into the first corner. The pair were close together for the rest of the race but Morris managed to defend the lead throughout, winning by two tenths of a second. Kevin Harrison took third in a third 996 C2 in front of the Cayman S of Chris Dyer. “There hasn’t been a yard between Mark and I in recent races, and he is quick at the end but I felt that was my race to win,” said Morris. “I never gave him an opportunity but he is a clean fair driver and we never touched.”
In race two, Johnson worked his way up from fifth place after the opening lap, passing Harrison and McAleer in quick succession to take second and gaining the lead when Morris missed a gear. “That was great racing, everyone was hard but fair,” said Johnson. “Kevin Harrison was brilliant, we were side-by-side and gave each other a millimetre of room, which was all you need. I loved that, so to win was the icing on the cake! It looked like Pete missed a gear when I went past him, but I’m happy to win any way I can.”
In class two, Andy Toon took a win and a second place across the races to close on McAleer at the head of the overall standings.
Byrne and Haslam take a win each in British Superbikes with PirelliMCE British Superbike Championship rivals Shane Byrne and Leon Haslam shared the spoils in the latest round of the Pirelli-equipped series at Cadwell Park.
Haslam posted the best ever lap of the circuit on his Kawasaki to claim pole position, and in the race he traded the lead several times with Ducati rider Byrne, who eventually got by for good on the final lap. Haslam did however break his own race lap record. Honda’s Jason O’Halloran made it a three-way fight, but ultimately had to settle for third.
In race two, Byrne got ahead at the start but Haslam fought back a few laps into the race and managed to hold on until the end. O’Halloran beat Byrne into second place on this occasion.
Ian Hutchinson claimed a dominant win in the Pirelli Superstock 100 race while Pirelli rider Charlie Nesbitt scored another double win in the open-tyre Moto3 races, a feat repeated by Dan Jones in the Standard class.
