Pit-stop penalty hits Seb’s hopes

Much to their initial delight, the 18-year-old and fellow driver Scott Maxwell had seemingly edged onto the podium at Brands Hatch to maintain their lead in the GT4 Championship.

But the No. 15 Multimatic Motorsports duo have now faced a devastating – and quite possibly decisive – blow from officials.

A seemingly innocuous error, officially reported as a pit-stop safety regulation infringement, has led to them receiving a 40-second penalty following a post-race investigation.

Not only has this demoted their third-place finish on the road to a less-favourable ninth, they have agonisingly dropped to third overall in the drivers’ championship.

At 105.5 points, Priaulx and Maxwell now trail Dean MacDonald and Callum Pointon by 3.5 points, while Ashley Hand and Tom Canning are in pole position with 117.5.

This put a very unfortunate dampener to what had initially been a great weekend.

After initially qualifying in 10th in class, a superb racing stint from Maxwell had allowed them to climb to a promising fourth at the change.

With Priaulx taking over to make further ground, this had soon blossomed into what appeared to be their third podium of the season.

The Sarnian, who was unavailable for comment yesterday, had excitedly posted on social media. ‘That was a tough, physical race with lots of traffic on a challenging circuit, so to come through from 10th to third and extend our points lead is awesome.

‘I’m delighted with the result.

‘A huge thank you to Multimatic for a faultless car once again.’

But following the news, they now need a mini-miracle to snatch the championship in the finale at Donington Park on 15 September.