Joe Osborne the current European GT4 Champion and BRDC Rising Star achieved an impressive maiden qualifying and race result in the first round of the FIA GT3 European Championship this weekend at the new Silverstone Arena Circuit.  The 21 year old signed a late deal with Belgian based Muehlner Motorsport and drove the new Porsche 911 GT3 R for the first time on Friday morning.  With less than 25 laps of testing Osborne went on to dominate the first qualifying session occupying pole position for the majority of the session.  With a rapidly drying track Joe reclaimed pole with less than a minute remaining only to have his last flying lap compromised by traffic and to finish 4^th.  Muehlner Motorsport boss Bernhard Muehlner was full of praise for his new driver saying “Joe has really impressed me and the whole team by his professional and mature approach.  I am delighted to have such an exciting young driver on board.  If this weekend is anything to go by we have a real chance of competing for the championship this season”. Osborne is to be partnered with experienced FIA GT3 pilot Gilles Vannelet who had his qualifying run affected by a red flag and finished in 18^th for race 2.

Osborne made a confident start to race 1 and quickly settled into the race matching the experienced Porsche Supercup driver Siso Cunill.  Despite intermittent traction control problems Osborne drove a faultless first stint and handed the car over to his French team mate in 3^rd place.   The experienced Vannelet was quickly on the pace but came under pressure from the 18 Corvette and the 87 Ferrari.  He drove a great defensive race but was eventually passed by both cars and bought the car in for an impressive 5^th place finish.  Osborne commented “I am really pleased with the result; everything has gone really well so far.  The team, car and team mate have been great and coming into the weekend we were looking for a top 10 finish so I am very happy with 5^th place”.

Vannelet made good progress in race 2 and was soon making progress from 18^th on the grid and handed over to Joe in 13th.  After a delayed pit stop Osborne was quickly continuing Gilles good work and was setting some of the fastest lap times on track and had climbed to 9^th with around 10 minutes remaining.   With a 6^th or 5^th place looking possible Osborne suffered a puncture and managed to get the car back to the pits for a new tyre.  Although Osborne was straight back on the pace time was running out and had to settle for a frustrating 16^th place.  With the 10 points from race 1 the Anglo-French pairing are 7^th in the championship.

The team head to the Czech Republic for rounds 3 and 4 on the 22/23^rd May.

Photo credit: Jakob Ebrey

Welcome to JoeOsborne.com and my new look site.  This year I am racing in the GT4 European Cup in a Ginetta G50. I’ll be updating the site with all the goings on this season so keep coming back .