Matt Rees claims maiden GB3 Championship victory at Brands Hatch

Welsh teenager Matt Rees claimed his maiden GB3 Championship victory as the series headed to Brands Hatch, producing a dominant lights to flag display in the opening race of the weekend (10/11 September).
 
The 17-year-old then followed up with a podium in race two and was handed the Sunoco Fastest Driver of the Weekend award for recording the quickest racing lap over all three contests.
 
In a tricky qualifying session, the BRDC SuperStar performed well as two red flags in the opening ten minutes disrupted his run plan. Despite this, he was quickly up to speed, setting the fastest time and going quicker again afterwards. Unfortunately, in the closing stages Tom Lebbon snatched pole by 0.023s, but as he had to serve a grid penalty, Matt started at the front of the field.
 
He had a bit of wheelspin off the line in the opening race that afternoon, but held onto his lead into the first turn, Paddock Hill Bend, and quickly pulled out a two second lead. Behind him, Luke Browning started chipping away at the gap by a couple of tenths each tour, bringing it down to under one second after seven of the scheduled 14 laps were complete. However, Matt continued his excellent pace out front, didn’t panic even as rain started to fall, and drove an assured race, claiming his maiden GB3 Championship victory in style.
 
The teenager had a good start to race two on Sunday morning, slotting into second place. Losing momentum as Lebbon checked up he fell back to fourth, before making a good pass on Joel Granfors to regain third at Sheene Curve. Setting the fastest lap of the race, he quickly reeled in Browning ahead, but in the dirty air was unable to find a way past, settling for a second podium of the weekend.
 
The final race was the fully reversed grid contest and Matt made a great start, gaining three places, but the red flags then came out for an incident at the high-speed Hawthorn’s corner. When racing resumed, he made his way past John Bennett, gained another place as Granfors had a problem, but was stuck behind David Morales to the flag, finishing 13th.
 
After his strongest meeting of the season, the reigning double F4 British Championship title holder has one more round of GB3 Championship action, travelling to Donington Park over the weekend of 15/16 October.