Fred Green claimed his fourth GB4 victory of the 2026 season after taking advantage of a slow start from Elite Motorsport teammate Yani Stevenheydens in Race 1 at Donington Park.
Green and championship leader Alex O’Grady both passed polesitter Stevenheydens off the line, with Green taking the lead and quickly building an advantage. A mid-race Safety Car brought O’Grady back into contention, but Green controlled the restart and held on to win by 0.774s.
Stevenheydens recovered to complete the podium on his GB4 debut, while Hillspeed’s Enzo Hallman finished fourth.
Green capitalises on Stevenheydens’ slow start
Stevenheydens had dominated Qualifying to claim both pole positions on offer, but his advantage disappeared immediately when he made a slow getaway from the front of the grid.
Green launched strongly from second and surged into the lead, while O’Grady also made it past the Belgian to take second. Stevenheydens consequently dropped to third and faced the task of recovering after his difficult start.
Green immediately demonstrated strong pace at the front and began pulling clear of O’Grady. The KMR Sport driver initially struggled to remain within striking distance, although he gradually began trimming the deficit as the race developed.
Behind the leading trio, Hallman maintained his place near the front while Dayton Coulthard began making progress after starting seventh.
Hallman moves ahead of Coulthard
Hallman strengthened his hold on fourth during the early stages after getting ahead of Coulthard, who had climbed from seventh on the grid.
Coulthard settled into fifth ahead of Fortec Motorsports’ Thomas Ingram Hill, while the two Pace Performance cars became involved in a battle further back.
Josh McLean, who had started 11th, continued his progress by passing teammate Torrin Byrne on Lap 6. That moved McLean into seventh, with Byrne dropping to eighth ahead of Douglas Motorsport’s Conor Grant and Hillspeed’s Connor Willis.
John O’Donnell followed in 11th after starting 16th, gaining five places during the race.
Safety Car brings O’Grady back into contention
Green’s advantage at the front disappeared around the halfway point when Solenn Amrouche spun and required recovery.
The Arden Motorsport driver’s stranded car triggered the Safety Car, bringing O’Grady and Stevenheydens back onto the leader’s tail and setting up a short fight to the finish.
Racing resumed with around four minutes remaining, but Green immediately produced a strong restart and prevented O’Grady from getting close enough to launch an attack.
O’Grady remained within a second throughout the final laps, while Stevenheydens stayed close behind the championship leader as the three leaders remained covered by little more than a second.
Green holds off O’Grady for fourth victory
Green maintained his composure through the closing stages and completed the 12-lap race in 20m28.687s, beating O’Grady by 0.774s to secure his fourth victory of the campaign.
O’Grady settled for second and continued his consistent scoring at the head of the championship. Stevenheydens crossed the line another 0.490s behind in third, earning a podium on his first GB4 race despite losing two positions from pole.
The Belgian also demonstrated his underlying pace by recording the fastest lap of the race, a 1m29.017s on Lap 6.
Hallman took fourth, only 0.690s behind Stevenheydens, with Coulthard fifth and Ingram Hill sixth. McLean completed his climb from 11th to seventh ahead of Byrne, while Grant and Willis rounded out the top 10.
O’Donnell gains five places as penalties affect lower order
O’Donnell finished 11th after making up five positions from 16th on the grid, while Archie Bullard produced an even larger recovery to take 12th from 26th.
Matan Achituv finished 13th ahead of Michael Koh and Franciszek Cegielski. Jordyn Martin, Romuald Bocquet, Enzo Rujugiro, Jamie Leverton and Lily-May Watkins completed the top 20.
Track-limits penalties affected several drivers in the lower half of the classification. Cegielski, Jasser Iskander, Faris Organji and Archie Davies each received five-second penalties, while Davies received an additional 10 seconds for further track-limits infringements.
Demitri Nolan and Amrouche were the race’s two retirements. Nolan completed 11 laps before his retirement, while Amrouche’s Lap 5 incident brought out the race’s only Safety Car.
2026 GB4 Donington Park Race 1 results — provisional
- Fred Green — Elite Motorsport — 12 laps
- Alex O’Grady — KMR Sport — +0.774s
- Yani Stevenheydens — Elite Motorsport — +1.264s
- Enzo Hallman — Hillspeed — +1.954s
- Dayton Coulthard — Douglas Motorsport — +4.988s
- Thomas Ingram Hill — Fortec Motorsports — +5.421s
- Josh McLean — Pace Performance — +6.071s
- Torrin Byrne — Pace Performance — +6.454s
- Conor Grant — Douglas Motorsport — +6.941s
- Connor Willis — Hillspeed — +7.671s
- John O’Donnell — Pace Performance — +8.615s
- Archie Bullard — Fox Motorsport — +11.589s
- Matan Achituv — Elite Motorsport — +12.090s
- Michael Koh — Arden Motorsport — +12.887s
- Franciszek Cegielski — Fortec Motorsports — +13.044s*
- Jordyn Martin — Fortec Motorsports — +16.926s
- Romuald Bocquet — Scorpio Motorsport — +17.470s
- Enzo Rujugiro — Fox Motorsport — +17.690s
- Jamie Leverton — Nitrous Competitions ADM Racing — +17.920s
- Lily-May Watkins — KMR Sport — +18.367s
- Jasser Iskander — Fox Motorsport — +21.786s*
- Holly Miall — KMR Sport — +23.011s
- Faris Organji — Scorpio Motorsport — +24.280s*
- Archie Davies — Scorpio Motorsport — +24.698s**
- Yana Kapoor — Arden Motorsport — +38.461s
- Caitlyn McDaniel — Nitrous Competitions ADM Racing — +1 lap
DNF: Demitri Nolan — Hillspeed — 11 laps
DNF: Solenn Amrouche — Arden Motorsport — 5 laps
* Five-second penalty for exceeding track limits.
** Five-second penalty plus an additional 10-second penalty for exceeding track limits.
Race 2 at Donington Park is due to commence at 11:25 BST on Sunday, with Stevenheydens starting from pole alongside Green once again.
