Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Velocity Racing Development’s Nikita Bedrin upstaged some of the other pre-season favourites by topping the opening two qualifying sessions of the year at Silverstone.
Former FIA Formula 3 driver Bedrin, who has made a sideways career move from Formula Regional Europe for 2026, set the pre-event testing pace prior to the weekend starting. He then took pole for Saturday’s first race by 0.035 seconds, and by a more comfortable 0.232s for race two.
Hitech GP’s GB3 sophomore Deagen Fairclough and Rodin duo Martin Molnar and Maxim Rehm also headed into the new season buoyed by some strong pre-season form, and the trio exchanged quickest times in the early stages of Q1.
Rehm delivered the first representative time, a 1m50.853s, on his third lap, with Fairclough subsequently lowering the pace by 0.4s. Molnar then moved ahead with a 1m50.289s, while Rodin’s Abbi Pulling, Bedrin and Xcel Motorsport’s Rowan Campbell-Pilling relegated Rehm further down the timesheet.
Rehm responded by climbing back to second, but he was then edged by his team-mate Pulling by just 0.002s, provisionally giving Rodin a top-three lockout. But Bedrin pounced in the closing stages with a 1m50.123, and Molnar claimed second, while Rehm made a further improvement to deny Pulling third by 0.023s.
Fairclough, meanwhile, was 0.35s off the pace in fifth, with Campbell-Pilling taking sixth on his GB3 qualifying debut.
Rehm again set the first competitive time in Q2, a lap that was 0.1s shy of Bedrin’s pole-winning effort in the previous session.
Molnar significantly lowered the pace to a 1m49.795s moments later, and improved by more than 0.1s on his next lap. But the Hungarian racer was again denied by Bedrin, who went even quicker by posting a 1m49.402s, and he was further relegated to fourth by the session’s end.
Fairclough clinched a front-row starting spot ahead of Rehm, who made a late improvement to edge Molnar to third by 0.003s, with Pulling only 0.001s behind in fifth. VRD’s Patricio Gonzalez took sixth ahead of Xcel duo Campbell-Pilling and Lucas Fluxa.
Qualifying results
Race 1 grid
1 Nikita Bedrin Velocity Racing Development 1m50.123s
2 Martin Molnar Rodin Motorsport +0.036s
3 Maxim Rehm Rodin Motorsport +0.216s
4 Abbi Pulling Rodin Motorsport +0.238s
5 Deagen Fairclough Hitech GP +0.350s
6 Rowan Campbell-Pilling Xcel Motorsport +0.416s
7 Kyuho Lee Elite Motorsport +0.478s
8 Jin Nakamura Hitech GP + 0.613s
9 Patricio Gonzalez Velocity Racing Development +0.665s
10 Leon Wilson Arden +0.683s
Race 2 grid
1 Bedrin 1m49.402s
2 Fairclough +0.232s
3 Rehm +0.270s
4 Molnar +0.273s
5 Pulling +0.274s
6 Gonzalez +0.410s
7 Campbell-Pilling +0.415s
8 Lucas Fluxa Xcel Motorsport +0.539s
9 Nakamura +0.589s
10 Lee +0.769s