Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
JHR Developments’ John Bennett pipped Hitech GP’s Tymek Kucharczyk to pole position for the first two GB3 races of the weekend at Zandvoort.
The 20-minute qualifying session took place on a wet track on Saturday morning, and Fortec Motorsports’ Edward Pearson was fastest with a 1m44.186s after the first flying laps had been completed.
He dropped to 11th after everyone completed their second laps, with Hitech’s Will Macintyre lowering the pace to 1m42.798s to lead Elite Motorsport’s McKenzy Cresswell by 0.056 seconds and Bennett by 0.082s. Kucharczyk wa 0.455s behind in fourth, and Rodin Motorsport’s points leader Louis Sharp languished down in 17th.
But Sharp jumped to the top on his third lap, setting a 1m41.981s that put him just 0.006s ahead of Kucharczyk. Bennett and Hitech’s Gerrard Xie were both within 0.3s of him, and Cresswell was shuffled down to fifth as almost all drivers improved.
Kucharczyk finally made it to the top next time by with a 1m41.152s. Bennett went second fastest, 0.137s behind, with Elite’s Hugo Schwarze and Rodin’s James Hedley trailing by 0.704s. Sharp set a new personal best but dropped to fifth, ahead of Macintyre and non-improvers Xie and Cresswell.
The gap between Kucharczyk and Bennett grew to 0.317s as the fifth flying laps were set, and Sharp set a 1m41.655s to go third fastest. Hedley was fourth, and Schwarze did not improve in fifth.
Kucharczyk found even more pace on his sixth lap, but so did Bennett and his 1m40.796s effort put him 0.295s ahead of him. Sharp was now 0.474s behind, with Hedley and JHR’s Patrick Heuzenroeder the only others within a second of the pace.
Bennett reduced Kucharczyk’s advantage to 0.234s on his next lap, and Sharp made a big gain to get within 0.369s of provisional pole. Cresswell rose to fourth, Hedley failed to improve in fifth, Xie went sixth quickest and the next improver was Arthur Rogeon down in 11th.
The battle for pole went Bennett’s way as the eighth flying laps were set, as he posted a 1m40.600s to claim top spot while Kucharczyk and Sharp failed to improve. Hedley set a new personal best in fourth.
Rodin driver Rogeon was one of only a few to improve on their ninth flying lap, and he climbed to sixth place, with Velocity Racing Development by Arden’s Nikita Johnson slitting into seventh while Heuzenroeder improved but remained in eighth.
Kucharczyk got within 0.129s of Bennett on his penultimate lap, and Sharp improved to 1m41.142s in third, with Cresswell and Xie in fifth and sixth as the chequered flag waved.
There was still time for one more lap, but only six drivers improved. Kucharczyck set a 1m40.661s, meaning he fell 0.061s short of Bennett’s race one pole time, Macintyre and Schwarze went fifth and sixth fastest, and Heuzenroeder improved in 10th.
Bennett also had a slim advantage when it came to the second-best laptimes which set race two’s grid, as he beat Kucharczyk to pole by 0.014s. Sharp and Hedley were again third and fourth, with Cresswell fifth, Heuzenroeder sixth and Johnson in seventh after being outside of the top 10 on outright pace.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 John Bennett JHR Developments 1m40.600s
2 Tymek Kucharczyk Hitech GP +0.061s
3 Louis Sharp Rodin Motorsport +0.542s
4 James Hedley Rodin Motorsport +0.623s
5 William Macintyre Hitech GP +0.751s
6 Hugo Schwarze Elite Motorsport +0.787s
7 McKenzy Cresswell Elite Motorsport +0.807s
8 Gerrard Xie Hitech GP +0.988s
9 Arthur Rogeon Rodin Motorsport +1.026s
10 Patrick Heuzenroeder JHR Developments +1.029s
Race 2 grid
1 Bennett 1m40.715s
2 Kucharczyk +0.014s
3 Sharp +0.450s
4 Hedley 41.555
5 Cresswell 41.625
6 Heuzenroeder 41.655
7 Nikita Johnson VRD by Arden 41.668
8 Xie 41.669
9 Macintyre 41.81
10 Schwarze 41.814