Home Formula 3GB3 Kucharczyk flies to the top in Silverstone GB3 test, McNeilly leads GB4

Kucharczyk flies to the top in Silverstone GB3 test, McNeilly leads GB4

by Steve Whitfield

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Douglas Motorsport’s Tymek Kucharczyk set the pace in GB3’s pre-event test on Silverstone’s Grand Prix layout, topping three of the six sessions across Thursday and Friday.

Kucharczyk set a best time of 1m52.446s on his final lap on day one to pip JHR Developments’ Matthew Rees by 0.035 seconds, with his effort remaining unbeaten for the remainder of the test.

Fortec Motorsports’ Max Esterson led Thursday’s opening session with a 1m53.480s lap, eclipsing Rees’ early benchmark by 0.258s. Rees finished second ahead of his team-mates David Morales and Joseph Loake, the trio separated by 0.051s.

Rees lowered the pace to a 1m53.421s in the second session but he was again beaten in the closing stages, with Zak Taylor ending quickest for Chris Dittmann Racing with a 1m53.369s. Esterson and Kucharcyzk were also less than one tenth behind.

Kucharczyk leapt ahead in session three with a new best of 1m53.264s, then improving by a further 0.2s on his next lap to finish almost half a second clear of Hitech GP’s Alex Dunne, with Taylor third.

There was a flurry of activity in the final minutes of session four, with 23 of the 25 drivers recording their best laps. Dunne and Loake beat Rees’ early effort to both briefly head the times before Kucharczyk responded with a new fastest lap of 1m52.663s on his penultimate lap. Rees went quicker once more with a 1m52.481s but Kucharczyk snatched back the advantage as the chequered flag fell, with Loake also improving to finish the day and the test third.

Kucharcyzk continued to set the pace on Friday, a slower time of 1m52.279s leaving him 0.335s clear of Esterson in the morning. His team-mate Lucas Staico was third, having been one of five drivers to improve from Thursday before the Brazilian caused a late red flag by stopping on track. Taylor led Kucharcyzk by 0.057s in a rain-hit afternoon session with a 2m07.108s lap.

Fox Motorsport’s Liam McNeilly topped four of six GB4 sessions. He set the pace with a 2m02.195s lap in session one and a 2m01.759s in session two, with Evans GP’s Cooper Webster the closest pursuer.

McNeilly improved by a further 0.5s in session three, but he was edged late on by Josh Irfan, testing for Elite Motorsport before heading to Brands Hatch for British Formula 4.

McNeilly set his best lap, a 2m01.114s, in session four to edge Irfan by 0.092s. Webster set a personal best to finish 0.024s further adrift in third ahead of Elite’s Harri Reynolds.

Nobody improved on Friday, with McNeilly leading session one with a 2m01.778s and points leader Tom Mills topping session two with a 2m01.976s. Mills will continue with Kevin Mills Racing this weekend despite still searching for a budget for the full season.

British F4 duo Patrick Huzenroeder and Jaden Pariat tested for Elite and Graham Brunton Racing respectively on Thursday. Part-time entrant Christian Lester also ran with Rossoverde Racing ahead of his first GB4 races of the season.

Results

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Tymek Kucharczyk Douglas Motorsport 1m52.446s 64
2 Matthew Rees JHR Developments 1m52.481s +0.035s 57
3 Joseph Loake JHR Developments 1m52.943s +0.497s 62
4 Alex Dunne Hitech GP 1m52.971s +0.525s 61
5 Max Esterson Fortec Motorsports 1m53.062s +0.616s 66
6 Nico Christodoulou Arden 1m53.092s +0.646s 62
7 Lucas Staico Douglas Motorsport 1m53.149s +0.703s 63
8 McKenzy Cresswell Elite Motorsport 1m53.180s +0.734s 39
9 Zak Taylor Chris Dittmann Racing 1m53.195s +0.749s 62
10 Jarrod Waberski Fortec Motorsports 1m53.200s +0.754s 64
11 Michael Shin Hitech GP 1m53.208s +0.762s 65
12 Souta Arao Hitech GP 1m53.223s +0.777s 62
13 David Morales JHR Developments 1m53.248s +0.802s 60
14 John Bennett Carlin 1m53.269s +0.823s 65
15 Callum Voisin Carlin 1m53.296s +0.850s 61
16 Ayato Iwasaki Elite Motorsport 1m53.430s +0.984s 54
17 James Hedley Arden 1m53.490s +1.044s 63
18 Oliver Stewart Elite Motorsport 1m53.537s +1.091s 65
19 Arthur Rogeon Chris Dittmann Racing 1m53.745s +1.299s 61
20 Costa Toparis Carlin 1m53.789s +1.343s 65
21 Noah Ping Arden 1m54.062s +1.616s 62
22 Shawn Rashid Douglas Motorsport 1m54.575s +2.129s 64
23 Daniel Mavlyutov Hillspeed 1m54.623s +2.177s 64
24 Edward Pearson Fortec Motorsports 1m54.875s +2.429s 56
25 Gerrard Xie Hillspeed 1m55.143s +2.697s 65
GB4
1 Liam McNeilly Fox Motorsport 2m01.114s 48
2 Josh Irfan Elite Motorsport 2m01.206s +0.092s 39
3 Cooper Webster Evans GP 2m01.230s +0.116s 61
4 Harri Reynolds Elite Motorsport 2m01.385s +0.271s 57
5 Pat Huzenroeder Elite Motorsport 2m01.518s +0.404s 43
6 Tom Mills Kevin Mills Racing 2m01.547s +0.433s 61
7 Colin Queen Fortec Motorsports 2m01.812s +0.698s 50
8 Ruhaan Alva Fortec Motorsports 2m01.974s +0.860s 53
9 Jeremy Fairbairn Kevin Mills Racing 2m02.623s +1.509s 49
10 Sid Smith Fox Motorsport 2m02.657s +1.543s 58
11 Aditya Kulkarni Fortec Motorsports 2m02.752s +1.638s 41
12 Jack Clifford Kevin Mills Racing 2m02.925s +1.811s 62
13 Harry Burgoyne Jr Graham Brunton Racing 2m03.044s +1.930s 60
14 Jason Conzo Oldfield Motorsport 2m03.306s +2.192s 61
15 Jaden Pariat Graham Brunton Racing 2m03.494s +2.380s 33
16 Christian Lester Rossoverde Racing 2m04.285s +3.171s 54
17 Thomas Lee Evans GP 2m07.226s +6.112s 56
18 Dylan Hotchin 2m10.158s +9.044s 17