Asserting herself as a championship contender in the GB4 Championship, Elite Motorsport driver Alisha Palmowski scored her second podium finish of the season at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, moving up to third in the overall championship standings.
Asserting herself as a championship contender in the GB4 Championship, Elite Motorsport driver Alisha Palmowski scored her second podium finish of the season. Competing at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit, Palmowski qualified fourth before finishing race one in the runner-up position. Despite a stall to begin race two, Alisha charged through the field to finish in fourth and move up to third in the overall championship standings.
It was a sensational start to the season for Palmowski at Oulton Park who achieved a victory in her first ever formula car race. Alisha’s speed in the opening round was consistently among the fastest and this saw her begin the season as an immediately championship challenger. Now looking ahead to Silverstone, Palmowski was once again aiming to contend for race victories while adapting to the style required to compete in the GB4 Championship.
Preparations for the race weekend began on Thursday with four test sessions enabling the drivers to gain extra experiences on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit. Palmowski ended the day fifth fastest with a best lap time of 2:02.187. Two further sessions on Friday gave last-minute fine tuning time for the GB4 Championship competitors, with Alisha finishing as the 11th fastest driver.
After two days of predominantly dry weather testing, qualifying brought contrasting conditions with a cold and damp track seeing the drivers fit wet tyres for the fifteen-minute session. Therefore, extracting the peak from the tyre would be key to a fast time. Palmowski was immediately on the pace and came within a second of pole position on the longest lap of the year, ending qualifying in fourth position.
Lining up on the second row of the grid, Alisha made an excellent initial start before displaying phenomenal racecraft throughout the first lap. Placing her car in the right spots, this enabled the Elite Motorsport driver to move up to third at the conclusion of lap one. Beginning lap two with the fastest first sector of any driver, Alisha was closing in on the lead group and made significant inroads by claiming the fastest lap.
Continuing her impressive pace, she was quickly cutting the gap to Finn Harrison and Linus Granfors who were starting to battle for the lead. On lap five, Palmowski was close enough to line up a move on Harrison and she got an excellent run through the Maggots and Becketts complex to make a move into Stowe corner.
Alisha was particularly strong under braking and this meant she was able to clear her teammate on the entry to the corner, without running wide on exit. Immediately building a gap of several car lengths on Harrison, Palmowski was looking to breaking the slipstream. Her task was aided by Marcus Luzio catching Harrison and this gave her significant breathing room in the closing stages which allowed Palmowski to secure an excellent second place result.
Race two of the weekend was scheduled to take place on Saturday morning, however this did not take place due to prolonged wet conditions and concerns of standing water. Therefore, drivers took to the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit for one race on Sunday and the track conditions were dry enough for slick tyres. Lining up fourth on the grid, Palmowski initially stalled on the start line but remained calm and therefore did not lose too much time. Ending the first lap in eighth, she knew she had time to recover lost positions.
Despite track conditions still being tricky, Alisha showed excellent confidence and this saw her set a pair of overall best sectors on lap two. Closing the gap to her rivals, more fast sectors followed and by lap four she had overtaken the Graham Brunton Racing machine of Mayer Deonarine. Although leader Linus Granfors had began to pull away out front, the next group of drivers were within Palmowski’s sights and a podium finish remained a realistic target.
On lap six, a spin for KMR Sport driver Brandon McCaughan elevated Alisha to sixth and this incident allowed her to further close in on her rivals. Now in contact with the four drivers ahead fighting for the podium, overtaking Chloe Grant would be her first task.
Palmowski got an excellent run out of Copse corner on lap eight and attempted a pass on her rival, with contact between the drivers moving Alisha into the top-5, however some time was lost to those ahead. With one lap remaining, there was insufficient time to gain further on-track positions, however Palmowski was classified in fourth following a false start penalty for Harry Burgoyne ahead.
Palmowski enjoyed a productive weekend at Silverstone in which she battled adversity to secure a large haul of championship points. An excellent second place result in race one was the result of superb race craft in the initial stages, before Alisha bounced back from a start line mishap in race two to finish in fourth position.
The Elite Motorsport driver now sits third in the championship standings and will be aiming for further podium results as the GB4 Championship drivers head to Donington Park for round three on the 25th/26th May.