Lucas Blakeley, Finn Harrison and Alisha Palmowski were the top three-finishers in the first race of the weekend at Donington Park. Here's how each driver reacted after the opening contest.
Winner, Lucas Blakeley, KMR Sport:
“I’m out of breath, as always a huge huge thanks to KMR Sport for giving me the tools to do the job. I let them down a bit in qualifying. A tricky session having been wet and not being here earlier when it did. The first lap, I couldn’t have dreamed it, it was so tricky, I could barely get the tyres to work on the formation lap. They were brand new slicks so to pull it off, manage it and just really control. I know how much it means for the team and myself, having my family again here, what a turnaround of emotions. I’m just so happy!
“Tomorrow’s a new day, I mean, it wasn’t meant to rain today, this is the British weather, so I have no idea what tomorrow holds but I’m so happy. I don’t have any more magic tricks to pull, this is as far as it goes when it comes to self-funding myself, I’ve backed myself, I’ve done everything I can. I was worried after qualifying I wouldn’t be able to end with a win, so, huge relief, huge relief.”
Second, Finn Harrison, Elite Motorsport:
“It was my mistake. I think I hit the paint maybe on the brakes, just locked up the rear left and sent me wide, it’s a shame. It’s a mistake that I’ll learn from.
“We know we’re alright in the dry, we need to figure out a few things but we know that we’ll get there. With the wet we proved in qualifying that we can do well, so I’d rather have wet than dry, but it is what it is.”
Third, Alisha Palmowski, Elite Motorsport:
“It was a very tricky race. Obviously conditions didn’t help at all. It was so hard to overtake because there was one dry line and as soon as you ventured off that dry line it was just so wet. I was stuck behind Leon for ages and I knew I had more pace. Overtaking him was going to be high risk so I knew I was ahead of my championship rivals and I needed these points so as much as I am taking it race by race it is in the back of my head. It took me a while but in the end managed to get the podium and bring it home safely, so job well done.
“Motorsport has a huge element of luck involved and we’ve had our fair share of bad luck as well this year. But I'm not sure what happened to Linus at the start and obviously I’m not sure at all what happened to Harry but Linus did very well because he was in my mirrors at the end of the race, I don’t know where he dropped to but he had a good comeback, but it’s great championship points and now focus is on tomorrow and try to get another good result.”
