LIGHTS-TO-FLAG WIN FOR OLIVIER ALGIERI IN DONINGTON PARK OPENER

Olivier Algieri secured a lights-to-flag victory in the opening Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy race of the weekend at Donington Park to move back onto five wins for the campaign.

Algieri had lost a victory from the previous event at Croft during a judicial hearing that took place ahead of the Donington weekend, but the Westbourne Motorsport wasted little time in bouncing back from that disappointment with another impressive drive from the front.

Having bagged a double pole in qualifying, Algieri was able to nail the start to lead the field into turn one for the first time, and took advantage of a battle behind between Ashley Gregory and Gabe Fairbrother to move 1.6s clear by the end of lap one.

Despite the best efforts of Gregory to keep him honest at the front, Algieri was never at serious risk of being overhauled and duly held firm to take another win that strengthens his championship challenge.

“We seem to be in a really good rhythm at the minute,” he said. “We’ve had a bit of time out of the car over the summer break and we’ve come back in the same sort of form we were in before – so I’m happy to keep that going.

“Ashley kept me on my toes and there were times when she would gain and times when I would pull away so we’ll look at that and see what we can improve for tomorrow.”

Gregory was beaten away from the line by Fairbrother at the start but then got a better run on the exit of the Old Hairpin to draw level on the run up to McLeans and reclaim the place.

From there, she was able to move clear of a huge battle that would rage throughout for third to emerge in second spot and equal her best result of the campaign.

“I made a mistake on the start which wasn’t great and dropped down to third, and Olivier just got the gap,” she said. “We had similar pace and I wasn’t overly confident coming here so we’ve done really well to come way with second spot.

“We’ve obviously found something with the car and it’s working really well, so hopefully we can build on it for races two and three.”

Fairbrother would initially find himself going wheel-to-wheel for third with Luca Marinoni Osborne as the pair diced for position, with Marinoni Osborne briefly getting ahead at the hairpin on lap seven only to run wide at the final corner – allowing Fairbrother to get ahead.

The battle between the pair allowed a charging Rhys Hurd – who had started back in eleventh – to close up behind and he followed Marinoni Osborne past Fairbrother at the Old Hairpin with the trio then swapping positions again on lap nine.

This time it was Fairbrother who went from fifth to third going into Redgate as Hurd challenged Marioni Osborne, with Hurd passing his team-mate on the exit of the corner and then nabbing third from Fairbrother going down the Craner Curves.

Hurd would hold on from there to take the final place on the podium ahead of Fairbrother, although Marinoni Osborne would find himself shuffled down the order in the closing laps to leave him tenth by the flag.

The saving grace there was that tenth was then drawn as the reverse grid for race two to put the Westbourne man on pole for race two.

Behind Fairbrother on the road, Josh Wilby battled his way to fifth ahead of Louie Capozzoli, with Henry Foote and Alfie Garford rounding out the top eight.

Championship leader Alex Keens endured a tough race after contact on the opening lap and took the flag back in ninth.