Hedley tops Snetterton GB3 test, Queen quickest in GB4

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

James Hedley was fastest by over 0.7 seconds as GB3’s pre-season testing continued at Snetterton this week.

Still to officially confirm his return to GB3 for a sophomore season, Hedley recorded a best lap of 1m42.893s for Arden VRD in Wednesday’s final session to leave himself clear of Max Esterson and McKenzy Cresswell. 

Only 11 drivers tested on the first day on Tuesday, with some teams absent as they travelled back from a separate test at Spa-Francorchamps.

All four sessions were held in wet conditions, with times improving throughout. Rodin Carlin’s Callum Voisin led session one with a 2m10.783s lap, 0.038 seconds ahead of Hitech GP’s Alex Dunne, who lowered the benchmark to a 2m01.963s in session two, with Voisin 0.019s behind.

John Bennett was one of three drivers to improve in session three, his 2m02.966s lap good enough to finish quickest ahead of Carlin team-mates Voisin and Costa Toparis.

Voisin set the fastest time of the day with two minutes remaining of session four, his effort of 2m01.925s eclipsing Dunne’s session two best, while Bennett improved just before the chequered flag fell to finish within 0.085s of the pace in third.

Times drastically improved on Wednesday, with nine more drivers joining the action. Among those was JHR Developments’ Matthew Rees, who was quickest in the opening session with a 1m45.938s, edging Arden’s Nico Christodoulou by 0.039s.

The pace picked up further in session two, with Elite Motorsport’s Cresswell leading the way before a series of quicker laps put Rees on top once again, his best lap of 1m43.687s leaving him over 0.3s clear of Hedley. Lap times were significantly slower in session three, which was topped by Christodoulou with a 1m50.654s.

Conditions improved for the final session, with Cresswell setting the best time so far, a 1m43.621s, while Hedley moved to within 0.015s. Hedley then posted his test-topping time of 1m42.893s, while Esterson improved late on to move up to second for Fortec Motorsports.

Rees was the only driver on track to not improve on his best lap, and ended the test fourth behind team-mate David Morales and ahead of Hitech’s Souta Arao, the trio separated by 0.006s.

Fox Motorsport were the only GB4 team to run on Tuesday, with Sid Smith leading team-mate Liam McNeilly, the pair utilising a drier track in session one to end the day with quicker times than the GB3 field.

Several more drivers took part on Wednesday, with Evans GP’s Cooper Webster topping session one by over a second with a 2m02.339s. Session two saw the fastest GB4 times so far, with Fortec’s Colin Queen recording a 1m51.934s to edge McNeilly to top spot by 0.051s.

Queen led again in the final two sessions and ended the test on top after his session two benchmark was not beaten, while Webster ended up just over 0.2s behind in third. Karting graduate Aditya Kulkarni tested for Fortec on Wednesday, while Fox ran a third car for Ginetta Junior racer Harry Moss, who ran without a transponder.

Test results