Granfors takes first GB3 win at Silverstone

Joel Granfors won the first GB3 Championship race of the weekend at Silverstone on Saturday for Fortec Motorsport, ahead of Luke Browning and Tom Lebbon.

Roberto Faria and James Hedley made wheel-to-wheel contact at Copse on Lap 1, but both survived.

Matthew Rees ran wide at Club, seemingly with damage, but didn’t lose too many positions.

Granfors led by 1.9 seconds after the first lap, while Browning made his way past Lebbon for second place.

Javier Sagrera went side-by-side with Rees through Stowe having seemed to get the move done at Becketts, but was able to hold onto the position.

Meanwhile, Faria had slipped back and tried going under and over the Elite Motorsport car of John Bennett in the final sector on Lap 2.

Sagrera dropped down the order at the end of Lap 2, retiring from Race 1 for the second time in as many meetings.

Much of the order remained the same for the first half of the race, with the only moves coming from Mikkel Grundtvig and Cian Shields who improved to P16 and P18 respectively on Lap 4.

Branden Oxley had moved up from P12 on the grid to P8 by the end of Lap 5, getting ahead of Chris Dittmann Racing team-mate McKenzy Cresswell.

Nick Gilkes and Cian Shields battled away for P18 on Lap 6, part of a gaggle of cars led by Bryce Aron and Mikkel Grundtvig.

While Granfors had led from the start, Browning held the fastest lap, closing the gap by two tenths on Lap 6. Granfors’ advantage still sat at 1.4 seconds, though.

Rees made an audacious move around the outside of Callum Voisin work at Brooklands as it turned into the inside of Luffield, and resisted the challenge from the Carlin driver into Copse on Lap 8.

Grundtvig, Aron, Gilkes and Shields continued their battle for P15 into the latter stages of the race, while Browning continued to close the gap.

Voisin and Rees’ battle ended with a five-second penalty for the JHR Developments driver for track limits infringements, dropping him out of the top ten.

Granfors crossed the line first, less than a second ahead of Browning, Lebbon, Max Esterson, Hedley, John Bennett, Roberto Faria, Oxley, Cresswell and Callum Voisin.

GB3 Silverstone Race 1 Results: