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

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