Ruhaan Alva scores maiden GB4 podium at Silverstone

Ruhaan Alva has made his first-ever appearance on the GB4 podium, finishing second in Race 3 at Silverstone.

After outings in Ferrari’s Driver Academy Asia Pacific selection programme and the World Motorsport Games in 2022, the Indian made the move to UK’s GB4 Championship earlier this year. The one-make championship runs the Tatuus F4-T014, which is the same car used in Italian, ADAC and Spanish F4.

1. Alva second in reverse-grid Race 3
2. Harri Reynolds takes first podium finish

2023 GB4: Ruhaan Alva second at Silverstone

As per GB4 rules, Race 3 of each round starts with a full grid reversal. Since Alva was last in qualifying, he inherited pole position for the final race, ahead of Fortec Motorsport teammate Aditya Kulkarni.

He held the lead off the line, but made contact with Sid Smith, causing the latter to retire from the race. Harri Reynolds took advantage of the drama to challenge for the lead, overtaking Alva at Vale. A late-race Safety Car bunched up the field, but Reynolds held on to take victory, while Alva crossed the line in P2.

Despite celebrating his first podium win, Alva admitted that he could have had an even better race. “It’s crazy, it’s really nice to be here. We could have had a better race, I had a really bad launch and then I don’t know what happened, I saw a car fly over me basically, it was a bit scary at the beginning but we were able to defend, keep fighting, and finish P2,” he explained.

“Ideally it would have been P1 but Harri passed me and I just had to stick with him and hope that no one else caught me and started fighting me so then I could get a gap behind.”

Also see:

Geoffrey Emmanuel first Indian to compete in FIM JuniorGP