Luciano Witvoet made history as he secured victory in the inaugural Crown Racing Series event at Silverstone. The Dutchman who had set impressive times in testing converted his pole into a hard-fought win, earning 32 points, giving him an early lead in the championship. David Bozga made it a Beneluxian 1-2 with Nicolai Pedersen third ahead of Balazs Erdelyi, while Igor Kos completed the top five. Youp de Vos finished sixth, ahead of Ryan Woodrow, who overcame a difficult opening lap to claw his way up to seventh ahead of Kadin Richardson after Alexander Paulick picked up a time penalty. Rounding off the top 10 were Kodi Cosford and Kyle Domark.
Chaos at the start as the battle for second heats up
With the top 12 separated by a second in qualifying, the prospect of fireworks at the start seemed inevitable when the action got underway. When the green light went out, Witvoet streaked off into the lead from Pederson and Bozga, but Woodrow, who started fifth, lost it on the approach to Abbey and was fortunate to stay out of the gravel.
With little time to react, Gregory Hovesen, Dani Neo and Kyle Domark all had to take the cross-country route through the corner, dropping them to the back.
Up at the front, Bozga and Erdelyi, as well as Pederson, slugged it out for second with the Dane just sneaking ahead as the opening lap of the CRS was put into the history books.
While Woodrow broke into the top eight by lap 7, Neo's race went from bad to worse, earning the stewards' attention after making contact with Federico Alberti.
The sun continues to shine on Witovet as the pitstop window begins
As the sun came up over Silverstone, the time for pit stops approached, and Richardson completed the first pit stop in CRS history on lap 6.
Konrad Kula had been making steady progress from 15th and was on the cusp of breaking into the 10th when he tried to get by Paulick. But the Pole lost control on exit from the Club and was inadvertently hit by the German. Despite bringing his stricken Ferrari back to the pits, Kula’s race was out of the points, and he rejoined a lap down.
Witvoet had built up a lead of over three seconds by the time he made his only stop on lap 15, with Pedersen and Erdelyi all coming at the same time, while Bozga went for one lap longer before stopping on lap 16. Bozga rejoined just in front of Witvoet, but the Dutchman wasn't going to give up easily and fought back to retake the lead at the exit from The Loop.
Meanwhile, at the back, Neo and Hovesen found themselves in the wars again as the pair collided at the chicane on lap 21, earning both drivers a drive-through penalty for their troubles.
The chicane remained a hot spot for contact, as on lap 25, Pagnini made contact with Richardson, while up at Abbey, Paulick hooked Neg into a spin, dropping him out of the top 10.
No such troubles for Witvoet, who held off Bozga to take victory, with Pedersen third ahead of Erdelyi. Kos came home fifth, ahead of de Vos and Woodrow, who drove a fine comeback race to finish seventh, ahead of Richardson.