Quaife-Hobbs denied home podium

Rising British star Adrian Quaife-Hobbs was denied a home podium finish in the opening GP3 Series race at Silverstone this weekend after a technical issue five laps from home ended his race.

The 19 year-old made a dream start from row two into second place at the first corner and although he dropped a place to his Manor Racing team-mate later on the opening lap, the Tonbridge teenager settled into a comfortable third place.

In front of around 135,000 people, Adrian turned up the pressure and pushed hard despite struggling with oversteer to pull away from the battle behind. However just five laps from the flag disaster struck when the car’s electrics cut out, forcing Adrian into instant retirement.

With the grid for race two determined by the results of race one, Adrian lined up 26th for Sunday morning’s race. Another good start allowed him to gain places moving up through the order but as he entered the fastest part of the circuit, another driver forced him off the track and into a spin, ending his race on the spot.

“It was a very disappointing end to what promised to be a great home event,” said Adrian. “In testing on Friday everything was going really well, we were fourth quickest and confident of being able to improve in qualifying. I pitted early for new tyres and was immediately quickest where I stayed for some time.

“Then I had a cool down lap and was ready to go again for pole position when someone spun right in front of me, causing me to back off. Thankfully my first two sectors had been so quick that although I backed off in the final sector I still set my fastest lap. However several others didn’t back off and went quicker, bumping me down to fourth.

“In the opening race I made a great start and was straight into second place but under braking for Club Corner I braked at the correct point but Rio Haryanto locked up behind me and I had to run wide onto the dirt, to avoid being collected by him, which allowed him through. This put me under pressure initially from the cars behind, but despite struggling with oversteer was able to pull away.

“Then five laps from home the car just cut out and I had to pull off the track. Very disappointing but we’ve made a small step forward this weekend. In the second race it was pretty much all over at the start, I made a good getaway but being so far down, you’re in the middle of all the weaving and cars were all over the place.

“Going into the fastest part of the track, another driver pushed me off track and into a spin. Even under yellow flags, at around 115kph on the apex of the corner, another driver hit my front wing, but luckily I was ok!

“The pace is there we now just need to get some good results under our belt to back up our speed and qualifying performance. Hopefully we can turn everything round at the next race.”

Adrian will next take to the track in two weeks time in Hockenheim, Germany over the weekend of 24/25 July.

For more info see www.quaifehobbs.com