Freddie Slater quickest on second day of GB3’s Donington Park test

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Hillspeed’s Freddie Slater set the pace on day two of GB3’s pre-season test at Donington Park.

Slater was 0.057 seconds quicker than Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Ninovic, with both having recorded their best laptimes in the second session. Xcel Motorsport’s Patrick Heuzenroeder was a close third, and he finished the two-day test fastest overall as warmer conditions prevented anybody from beating his pace-setting time from Wednesday.

Heuzenroeder continued where he left off from day one by topping Thursday’s opening session, his 1m22.489s lap just over 0.1s shy of his overall personal best. Hitech GP’s Deagen Fairclough was just 0.025s behind, with Hillspeed’s early session leader Slater and Argenti with Prema’s Lucas Fluxa a further 0.2s adrift.

Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Ninovic lowered the day’s pace by 0.02s moments before a red flag halted session two. Another five minutes of running followed, which was enough time for Slater to take top spot away from Ninovic by 0.057s with a 1m22.412s. Noah Lisle, who continued to test for JHR Developments on day two, was just 0.031s behind in third while Fairclough was fourth ahead of Elite Motorsport’s Will Macintyre. The top eight were separated by less than 0.5s.

Heuzenroeder again led in session three with a time 0.004s quicker than his session one effort, and it left him 0.016s clear of Ninovic and 0.075s ahead of Slater. Fairclough and Macintyre were again fourth and fifth.

Fairclough and Ninovic both brought out red flags in session four, resulting in only 18 minutes of running. Ninovic was still fastest with a 1m22.580s ahead of team-mate Gianmarco Pradel, who set a personal best to end the day seventh overall, while car issues prevented Heuzenroeder from running.

Lisle’s session two best put him fourth in the day’s overall classification behind Slater, Ninovic and Heuzenroeder, while Fairclough was fifth ahead of Macintyre.

Fluxa was another to set his best time in session four to edge James Higgins, again testing for Fortec Motorsports, to eighth place by 0.02s. Xcel’s Jack Sherwood was 10th despite gearbox issues preventing him from any meaningful running in the first three sessions, and just 0.5s separated 15 of the 20 drivers present.

Fortec confirmed its first signing for the new season on Thursday as Stefan Bostandjiev makes the switch from sportscars for his single-seater debut. The Bulgarian raced for Iron Lynx in the Italian GT and Lamborghini Super Trofeo championships last season, and raced GT4 machinery in the German championship in both 2022 and ’23. He has taken part in all of the pre-season tests so far, and was 0.492s off the outright pace in 11th on day two at Donington Park.

“I’m incredibly humbled and excited to take this next step in my career and make the jump from sportscar and endurance racing to single-seaters with a team as decorated as Fortec Motorsport,” said Bostandjiev. “It’s an unconventional route, but one I’m ready to maximise, as I’m hungry to prove that any barrier can be broken with the right commitment and drive.”

He is the 16th driver to confirm his place on the grid, and at least three more drivers are understood to have finalised deals.

Day two results