Edward Pearson picked up a brace of top 20 finishes from what proved to be a challenging return to Silverstone for the latest rounds of the GB3 Championship partnered by the BRDC season.
The first visit of the year to the home of the British Grand Prix earlier in the season had been a tricky one for the Fortec Motorsport driver, who was competing on the full Silverstone layout for the first time - with an eleventh-place finish in the final race being his best result.
Returning to the circuit for the second time this season, Edward was hoping to try and push for a fourth top-ten finish of the campaign, with the youngster having scored a fifth-place finish in the previous meeting at Snetterton to go with earlier strong results at Oulton Park and Spa.
After two busy days of practice ahead of the weekend, Edward qualified in 20th place in a hard-fought session that saw him lap little over a second off the pace, reflecting the highly-competitive nature of the series and showing the challenge that lay ahead for the three races.
Forced to take avoiding action due to a clash ahead on the opening lap, Edward retained his place inside the top 20 but would then spend the remainder of the race running in traffic.
Although lapping quicker than a number of drivers ahead, and showing pace comparable to the lower reaches of the top ten, Edward would have to settle for a 19th place finish when the chequered flag dropped - a result that didn’t reflect his true on-track pace.
Starting race two from 19th on the grid, Edward found himself shuffled back to 22nd a frenetic opening lap before the safety car was called out to recover a car from the gravel at Copse.
When the action resumed, Edward was able to work his way back through to 19th to replicate his race one result, with focus turning to the reverse grid final race - where he would line up on the second row of the grid.
There would be a twist in the tale ahead of the finale when heavy rain arrived before the start, leading to the decision to get the action underway behind the safety car.
However, after a handful of laps it was apparent that conditions were too bad for the race to get underway safely with the cars instead returning to the pitlane.
Unfortunately, conditions would fail to improve, leading to the decision to abandon the meeting with no result declared for the final race.
"It’s been a really tough weekend," Edward reflected. "I feel we had more pace in the car than the results on paper show at the end of it, as in both of the first two races we found ourselves running in a pack of cars.”
"Even though we were quick enough to run higher up the order, we just didn’t have track position, but I felt we could fight for a podium in race three with the position we were starting.”
"Sadly, the weather had other ideas but I can’t argue with the decision to cancel the race as the conditions were just too bad to allow us to go out on track. It’s a shame, but we just need to take everything we have learned here and focus on the next event at Brands Hatch."
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