Richardson Racing battled to a seventh podium finish of the season as the Porsche Carrera Cup GB season continued apace at Silverstone.
The Corby-based team headed for the Northamptonshire circuit just a week after doing battle at Croft, with drivers Will Martin, Josh Malin and Will Bratt all going into round six of the year in confident mood.
After a solid showing for all three drivers in pre-event testing the trio went into qualifying optimistic about challenging inside the top ten on a packed grid of more than 20 cars.
Martin would lead the teams challenge with the fifth fastest time with Malin rounding out the top ten despite seeing two laps disallowed for exceeding track limits. Bratt would also lose a time to track limits as he qualified in twelfth with the three drivers all within six-tenths of a second of pole.
Although he would lose a spot on the opening lap, Martin quickly got back ahead of Matthew Graham into fifth and would remain in the place through to the finish in a race that included a lengthy mid-race caution period after an incident on track. A post-race penalty however would see him drop back behind Graham to sixth in the final results.
Bratt would fight his way up into the top ten in the limited racing laps available, whilst Malin recovered well from an incident on lap one that dropped him down to the back of the field when he was forced to pit to repair a puncture. Staying on the lead lap, he would fight back up to 13th at the finish, gaining seven places in five laps after the safety car.
Sixth on the grid for race two, Martin worked his way ahead of Graham and Kiern Jewiss to run in fourth spot before finding a way past defending champion Harry King to move into third. The end result for Will was his sixth podium of the year to leave him fifth in the championship standings.
Malin’s recovery from the race one contact would continue as he fought his way up from 13th on the grid to break into the points with ninth spot, with Bratt taking the flag in eleventh.
Will Martin, #10 Richardson Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, said:
“It’s been another strong weekend for me. We had some work to do in race one and there was only limited laps in which to do it, but in race two we made up ground and managed to work up to the podium.
“It’s a big confidence boost to be taking home more silverware this weekend, and the points are also important because we are at that stage of the year where we have to take as many as we can get.”
Josh Malin, #90 Richardson Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, said:
“Things went wrong for me from the first lap of race one when some contact with Lewis Plato saw me pick up damage that resulted in a puncture. Thankfully I was able to get the tyre changed and stay on the lead lap, which meant I could get back on the pack and recover some places.
“In race two, I came from 13th to ninth and was in the mix for top rookie by the finish so I feel we showed good progress even though it’s been an unfortunate weekend in terms of the end results.”
Will Bratt, #91 Comline Richardson Racing Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, said:
“We showed strong pace in Wednesday during testing and then didn’t use new tyres on Friday to save them for the weekend, so I was confident about what we could do. We then discovered an issue with the dampers which we replaced before qualifying and for some reason, I lost the feeling we had with the car.
“We ended up chasing the car a bit to try and get that feeling back and we didn’t get the results that I feel were possible this weekend. I felt we had turned a corner after testing but hopefully we can fight higher up the order when we go to Donington Park.”