The coronation weekend saw Ruben Hage make a stellar return to Silverstone, the home of British Motor Racing, for round two of the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT Championship.
Aiming to build on the podium success from round one at Oulton Park, and after a successful test a few days prior placing him P2 in the combined classification, Ruben was full of confidence and ready to take to the iconic grand prix circuit.
Friday’s practice sessions saw the whole grid having to contend with changeable weather conditions thanks to the intermittent rain, which hampered running for all including Ruben.
Qualifying
As predicted, heavy rain fell over Silverstone on Saturday morning, declaring the Ginetta GT Championship qualifying a full wet session. Heading out for the 20-minute session, Reade set the pace straight away, although soon beaten to the punch by Davies, as Ruben started to set his first competitive laps.
With less than half of the session to go, Ruben set a lap good enough for P2 overall, and with the conditions not getting any better, it was looking like Davies was going to be sat in the top spot. However, with just minutes to spare, Ruben had one more shot and, after setting two purple sectors, flew to the top of the timing screens to claim his maiden pole position with an incredible four tenths to spare!
Race One
Over the moon to gain his first ever pole position, Ruben had all eyes on race one. Unfortunately, the rain progressively worsened throughout the day, and by mid-afternoon it was deemed unsafe to race due to the amount of standing water out on the track.
This meant that race one was postponed to a later date in the race season. A disappointing end to an otherwise excellent day for Ruben, but as he put it, that’s racing!
Race Two
Sunday morning saw the weather conditions dramatically improve with sunny conditions predicted for most of the day as Ruben headed out for race two. Taken from the second fastest lap time in qualifying, Ruben started P2 on the grid for the morning’s race, putting him in a prime position to chase down some silverware.
Unfortunately, Ruben got a poor getaway from the front row and fell back to fifth as the field of cars all exited turn one. His luck continued to dimmish as the cars entered the Maggots and Becketts complex, where Ruben spun on wet grass as he made an effort to avoid an incident in front.
With Ruben sitting in P6, the safety car led the field around the circuit whilst the marshalls swiftly cleared the damaged cars off of the track. Much to his frustration, Ruben found himself held back at the safety car restart when the car ahead of him hesitated to accelerate with the rest of the pack ahead.
Crossing the line to resume racing, Ruben was not only at the back of the GT Pro field, but also roughly five seconds off the leading pack. With fifteen minutes left of the race, and with the podium still in his sights, Ruben battled on and fought hard to overtake the car ahead to catch back up to the leading pack.
From there, it was all about picking his competitors off one by one, and in the space of just one lap, Ruben battled his way up to P2. Now focused on the win, Ruben had his eyes firmly set on victory, but with a four second gap to leading Luke Reade, he had an uphill battle on his hands.
Despite being the fastest car on track and reducing the gap between himself and rival Reade to an impressive 0.7 seconds in the last five minutes of the race, Ruben flew past the chequered flag in P2 as he rounded off the weekend with another podium.
Speaking on the dramatic weekend, Ruben said: “What a weekend! I was gutted to get caught up in a spin on lap one of the race, but I’m really pleased to have fought back to finish on the podium.”
“Overall, we had another great weekend, from clinching the first pole position of my career, to building on my podium tally. I’m looking forward to turning my focus to my home round, Donington Park, for the third round of the championship later this month where I hope we can continue this success.”
With another podium to his name, Ruben has now jumped up to third overall in the drivers championship standings, and just one point off of second spot.
The next round of the Protyre Motorsport Ginetta GT Championship will take place on the 26-28 May at Ruben’s home round Donington Park, a circuit which last year earned him his first ever podium in senior circuit racing.