Freddie Slater sets GB3 testing pace at Snetterton

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

GB3’s official pre-season testing began on Wednesday at Snetterton, and Freddie Slater was fastest for Hillspeed.

Slater, who will contest a part-time GB3 programme alongside his full-time Formula Regional European campaign this year, set an unofficial lap record of 1m40.568s in the fourth and final session of the day aboard the brand-new Tatuus MSV GB3-025 car to edge Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Ninovic by 0.046 seconds.

Hitech GP’s reigning British F4 champion Deagen Fairclough topped both morning sessions before ending the day a close third, while Rodin’s F1 Academy champion Abbi Pulling was within 0.394s of the pace in fourth.

Fairclough posted a session one best of 1m40.949s to finish 0.170s ahead of his team-mate Keanu Al Azhari, while Ninovic and Slater were third and fourth.

Ninovic eclipsed Fairclough’s benchmark by 0.003s in session two, and the pair continued to swap places at the top of the timesheet before Fairclough edged the Australian to the quickest time by 0.043s with a 1m40.730s. The top four was completed once more by Al Azhari and Slater.

There was no change to the testing pace in session three, with a 1m41.188s good enough to put Xcel Motorsport’s Patrick Heuzenroeder at the top. Having led for a large chunk of the session, Ninovic was eventually demoted to second, with Fairclough third ahead of Pulling and Argenti with Prema’s Lucas Fluxa.

Slater lowered the pace to a1m40.707s in the early stages of session four, and he followed that up two laps later with his test-topping time. Ninovic set a personal best to finish the day in second ahead of Fairclough, who did not improve on his session two time.

Pulling’s best lap also came in session four, with Al Azhari shuffled back to fifth having also not improved from session two. Heuzenroeder’s session-three topping effort put him sixth overall, with a new personal best in the final session leaving Fluxa seventh.

Noah Lisle, who raced in Eurocup-3 last year and has not yet confirmed his racing plan for 2025, was eighth for JHR Developments. Also testing for JHR was Kai Daryanani, who competed in British F4 last season.

Chris Dittmann Racing, another team yet to confirm any drivers for the 2025 GB3 season, ran USF Juniors racer Leandro Juncos and two-time GB4 race-winner Finn Harrison. Multiple British F4 race-winner James Higgins and sportscar racer Stefan Bostandjiev both tested for Fortec Motorsports, while Velocity Racing Development ran former US Pro 2000 and FIA F3 driver Hunter Yeany.

Testing continues on Thursday.

Day one results