17/08/26

ROUND 5: SNETTERTON RACE 1

For Revie Lake, Snetterton began with the kind of promise that makes a young driver's difficult season suddenly look very different.

Heartbreak for Revie Lake as Snetterton podium chance disappears on opening lap

Revie Lake qualified third in GT4 at Snetterton, but his strongest starting position of the season turned into an opening-lap retirement.

After the summer break, the 16-year-old returned to British GT with Paddock Motorsport and the #84 McLaren Artura GT4.

By Saturday afternoon, the car was near the front.

By Sunday lunchtime, the opportunity was gone.

A breakthrough qualifying performance

Lake had already shown impressive pace during practice.

The Paddock McLaren was fourth-fastest in GT4 during pre-qualifying, with Lake recording a 1:56.231.

Then came qualifying.

Lake produced a 1:55.356, putting the McLaren third in GT4 for Race 1.

It was one of the strongest qualifying performances of his British GT career.

The official qualifying coverage described Lake as one of the leading challengers to Josh Stanton's pole-winning Optimum McLaren.

For a driver who had begun the season with a retirement at Silverstone and two 17th-place finishes at Oulton, this was a major step forward.

The podium was within reach.

The opportunity lasts one lap

Unfortunately, Lake's race lasted barely long enough to show what might have been.

The opening lap descended into chaos in GT4.

According to the official race report, Lake's McLaren was the first retirement of the race after going onto the grass at the end of the opening lap.

Paddock Motorsport subsequently described the incident as Lake being hit by the out-of-control Ginetta of Luke Shaw at Wilson hairpin, ending the McLaren's race after just two corners.

Whatever the precise chain of events, the outcome was brutally simple.

Third on the grid.

Retired on the opening lap.

The cruelest kind of result

For Lake, it was particularly frustrating because the pace had finally translated into starting position.

He had earned the opportunity.

The McLaren had the speed.

And then, before the race had properly begun, it was over.

Hadley Simpson and Thomas Holland went on to win GT4 for Innovation Racing, with Daniel Lavery and Darren Turner taking second and Josh Stanton and George Gamble third.

Lake could only watch from the sidelines.

One more chance

There was, however, one consolation.

Snetterton's second half of the weekend was not finished.

The sprint format meant another one-hour race would take place that afternoon.

Lake would not be starting from third.

But he and Angliss would have another opportunity to salvage something from a weekend that had promised so much.