Rodin’s Alex Ninovic continued his charge towards the 2025 GB3 Championship crown with a commanding performance at Brands Hatch.
The return of Freddie Slater – who starred during his two appearances earlier in the year – offered increased competition, but even he had no answer to the Australian’s blistering pace.
Ninovic comfortably beat the GB3 track record in qualifying to take pole for the first two contests, having been half a second quicker than Slater.
The pair traded fastest laps in the early stages of race one before Ninovic scarpered four seconds up the road, but his charge was halted by the safety car when Xcel Motorsport’s Jack Sherwood slid into the gravel at Stirlings bend.
A three-lap dash to the flag followed, with Ninovic making light work of the restart before coming home two-seconds clear.
Deagen Fairclough had no answer to the front two’s pace, but third brought renewed confidence for the current Silverstone Autosport BRDC Award winner after a 10-race podium drought.
Fairclough was back on the podium at Brands Hatch
Photo by: JEP
Patrick Heuzenroeder lost further ground to Ninovic in the title chase by coming home fourth ahead of Will Macintyre and Hiyu Yamakoshi, while fellow contender Gianmarco Pradel led home Rodin team-mate and F1 Academy champion Abbi Pulling in seventh.
A support race incident [see below] led to Sunday’s two encounters being heavily delayed.
Ninovic resisted an opening-lap challenge from Slater when the second bout eventually got underway, and he had to manage another safety car restart before cruising to his sixth triumph of the campaign.
Fairclough and Heuzenroeder also repeated their previous result in third and fourth, with Pradel close behind in fifth and Yamakoshi again sixth. Hitech’s Keanu Al Azhari caused the early caution by crashing into the barriers following a collision with Enzo Tarnvanichkul.
Red Bull junior Tarnvanichkul experienced better fortunes in the reversed-grid contest by taking his maiden single-seater victory ahead of fellow first-time podium finishers Sherwood and Pulling.
Tarnvanickul beat Sherwood off the line and pulled out a three-second lead, while Pulling was slow away from the second row and slipped to sixth.
The F1 Academy champion claimed her first podium of the 2025 GB3 campaign
Photo by: JEP
The safety car was deployed when Macintyre spectacularly spun out of third at Hawthorns, and there was more drama when racing resumed with five minutes remaining.
Fairclough, who had earlier made a lightning getaway from 10th, challenged Kai Daryanani for third. Pulling then made it three-wide on the downhill run to Hawthorns before backing out – but she snatched third as Daryanani and Fairclough simultaneously slid off the road.
Pradel and Heuzenroeder tangled further around the lap at Stirlings, resulting in the latter retiring in the gravel and the race finishing under safety car conditions.
Yamakoshi, Slater and Kanato Le signed off their part-time campaigns with Hillspeed by all finishing in the top seven.
Ninovic started and finished 12th and, with his main pursuers failing to score, he further extended his lead to 71 points with two rounds remaining.
“It’s been an amazing weekend,” he said. “We keep learning more and getting stronger. It puts us in a really good spot in the championship.”
Brands Hatch support races overshadowed by Ginetta Junior crash
Fred Green dominated the Ginetta weekend at Brands Hatch
Photo by: JEP
Elite Motorsport’s Fred Green scored a double victory during a chaotic weekend for Ginetta Junior at Brands Hatch, with the second contest halted by a serious collision.
Max Murray was hospitalised after spinning at the exit of Sheene in which Tim Gray Motorsport’s Karina Ee subsequently collided into the ProjectR driver, causing track action to be delayed for more than an hour. R Racing’s Alfie Slater was eventually declared the winner ahead of Green and Red Bull junior Rocco Coronel.
Green withstood a final-corner challenge from Max Cuthbert to win Saturday’s opening encounter, the pair having worked together to pull clear of the rest. Colin Cronin ran third early on, but eventually lost out to Coronel and Slater.
There was another red flag in the finale after Ethan Carney crashed heavily at Hawthorns. Having passed Slater for the lead prior to the stoppage, Green had to do it all again in the five-minute sprint that followed, squeezing up the inside exiting Paddock Hill bend before completing the move at the next corner.
Slater tried to reclaim the place at Surtees but was shuffled back to third by Coronel, who was denied a chance to challenge for victory when the chequered flag was waved early.
Elite was also the team to beat in GB4, as Isaac Phelps scored a dominant brace ahead of his team-mate Ary Bansal and long-time championship leader Daniel Guinchard – leaving the trio separated by just 25 points with one round remaining.
There is a tight championship battle in GB4 heading into the Donington Park finale
Photo by: JEP
Phelps’ largest victory margin came in the second contest, when he finished over nine seconds clear after resisting an opening-lap challenge from Guinchard, who ran wide and lost out to Bansal in the process.
“It’s wide open, anything can happen,” said Phelps. “This weekend we found a lot of pace – definitely more than expected.”
Ginetta Academy is set for an even closer title climax after James Nicholas closed to within one point of E3 Sport team-mate Jamie Caudle by winning the weekend’s two races, with the other contest rescheduled to the deciding round.
Nicholas withstood an attack from his chief rival in a restarted opener and remained ahead until the finish. Charlie Digby kept his hopes alive by prevailing in a three-way battle for third with rookie class contender Sam Shrimpton and his MDD Racing stablemate Louis Darling.
Nicholas again prevailed against Caudle in a battle for second in the sequel before snatching the lead from Digby at Sheene Curve.
Jack Collins managed a final-lap safety car restart to win the first Ginetta GT Championship race, while points leader Archie Clark staved off the early attentions of title rival Robert Cronin on his way to second.
Harry Gamble had a race to forget after going off the road twice before being the victim of a further incident with Nick White on the last lap. He had a further spin in the pitstop race, while White retired in a first-corner collision. Collins, meanwhile, went on to take victory again ahead of Cronin and Clark.
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