McLean Takes Victory by Over a Second at Oulton Park Race 3
- therookiereporters
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
McLean started the race in second but managed to get ahead of Coulthard at the start for what was an intense battle to the chequered flag.
The starting grid for the third race is decided by a reserve grid of the top 12 drivers from qualifying, whilst anyone who qualified 13th or below is starting in those same positions. Race 3 will see Dayton Coulthard starting on pole followed by Josh McLean, Emilio Valentino Del Grosso, Connor Willis and Franciszek Cegielski who make up the top 5. Both Coulthard and McLean will be looking to have a strong third race following their Race 2 collision.
What a start from McLean making a move on Coulthard and taking the lead! A safety car came out after the Arden Motorsport car of Charlie Myers went into the barrier. The Pace Performance car of John O’Donnell also went off near Cascades. Whilst the safety car was deployed, Lily-May Watkins went into the pits for her front wing and the red flag was waved whilst marshals cleared up the track. The Elite Motorsport car of Matan Achituv was made to retire his car following an incident with Watkins.
The starting grid for the restart will be a standing start with the original grid, Coulthard will have another chance to keep the race lead. For the race restart, the length of the race was 15 minutes. Lily-May Watkins had her restart from the pitlane.
McLean took the lead from Coulthard yet again and Del Grosso tried to make a move on Coulthard to take second. The car of Romauld Bocquet came to a halt just before T13. With 10 laps to go Luke Hilton was right on the back of Del Grosso and then going wheel to wheel and Hilton lost a position and Willis got back past him. A black/white flag was waved near Cascades for the #8 car of Thomas Ingram-Hill. We saw Ingram-Hill get past Hilton on Lap 4.
On Lap 5, Del Grosso started to close in on Dayton Coulthard and there was also pressure on Del Grosso from Willis. Hilton attempted to defend but it was the Hillspeed of Enzo Hallman that managed to get ahead, the Swede making it to sixth in the running order. With two racing laps to go McLean was leading the race by almost a second which is almost unheard of.
Yellow flags came out at Cascades after Michael Koh came down the order and lost 9 places, he ended up not finishing the race.
At the chequered flag it was McLean who finished in the lead by over a second, after some intense battles with second place finisher Coulthard and it was Emilio Valentino Del Grosso who took the final podium spot.
Jon Jackson spoke to the podium finishers starting with McLean.
JJ - “Congratulations, your best result in GB4 and your first win, how does it feel?”
Following this, he spoke to Dayton Coulthard.
JJ - “Another podium for you, congratulations! It’s a tough day and tough conditions.”
DC - “Yeah, very hot so it’s probably the most physical race we’ve had so far.”
Finally he spoke to Del Grosso.
JJ - “The biggest smile on the grid, another podium for you, how did it feel out there?”
ED - “It was amazing, the pace was definitely there, we were really quick, we did the fastest lap by a mile. I actually want to dedicate this podium to my sister as it’s her birthday today. And especially to represent Venezuela again on the podium, it really means the world to me and especially after a bad qualifying, well not a bad, it just didn’t go our way, it was just damage control from there. We kept Coulthard busy, unlucky I couldn’t get through but it was a lovely race.”
Following this race weekend, it’s Fred Green who leads the championship from Alex O’Grady by 13 points and Hillspeed's Enzo Hallman in this with 122 points. For the teams standings it’s Hillspeed that leads from Douglas Motorsport by 24 points.
Article written by Ria Wiktor ©️ Ria Wiktor 2026
