First GT success for Henry at Misano

Rising star Henry Joslyn secured his first win since moving into GT racing with a stunning double victory during the inaugural event for the GT4 Italian Series at Misano.

The talented teenager and his Toyota Gazoo Racing Sweden team elected to use the event to gain valuable extra track time ahead of a GT4 European Series event at the same circuit in July, with Henry joined on track by regular team-mate Maximilian Boström.

After a solid run in Free Practice for the #29 Toyota GR Supra GT4 EVO2, Henry was in fine form in the first qualifying session as he set the second quickest time behind the vastly more experienced Alex Fontana - a multiple title winner in GT competition.

 Boström then repeated the performance in second qualifying to ensure that the Toyota would be at the sharp end of the grid for both races.

 Taking the start of the opening race, Henry slotted into second behind Fontana on the opening lap, holding station behind the Swiss driver and edging clear of the third-placed BMW of Gustavo Sandrucci.

Henry would remain in second throughout his stint before pitting to hand the Toyota over to Boström who set about trying to chase down Fontana’s team-mate Danilo Arfini.

A safety car with little over twelve minutes remaining closed up the field, with Boström grabbing the lead shortly after the restart before then being demoted back down to second by Giacamo Maman, who had taken over the BMW from Sandrucci.

On the penultimate lap however, Boström battled his way ahead into a lead he would retain to the flag as the pair took victory by just 0.403s.

Boström then started race two from second spot alongside the Alpine of Eric Brigliadori and held position through the opening lap before being demoted to second by Filippo Zanin’s Porsche.

Having battled back through into second spot, Boström held second place through to the driver changes when he followed Brigliadori into the pits to hand the Toyota over to Henry for the run to the flag.

Despite losing time in the pits as a result of the time penalty imposed for winning race one, Joslyn rejoined in second spot behind Gianpaolo Orlandini, who was now behind the wheel of the Alpine but had a lead of more than 16 seconds.

Undeterred, Henry was in stunning form through his stint with a series of consistently quick laps allowing him to chase down the Italian driver ahead until the pair were together with little more than three minutes left on the clock.

 Scything down the inside of his rival, Henry put the Toyota back into the lead and raced clear in the final laps to take victory by more than eight seconds.

“It was the first time we’d been to Misano so we didn’t really know what to expect going into the weekend, and were just focusing on trying to learn as much as we could ahead of the GT4 Europe round later in the season,” he said.

“When we qualified on the front row for both races, we knew we had good pace but it was still a bit of a surprise to walk away with two wins - particularly in race two when we had to spend longer in the pits.”

“It’s fantastic for both myself and the team to have secured these victories and hopefully we can take the momentum from this weekend in our next GT4 Europe outing at Monza at the end of the month.”