Kucharczyk claims dominant maiden GB3 win in Silverstone opener

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Hitech GP’s Tymek Kucharczyk made good use of pole position to take a comfortable lights-to-flag victory in the opening GB3 race of the weekend at Silverstone.

The Polish racer led away at the start, while Elite Motorsport’s McKenzy Cresswell drew alongside Hitech’s Will Macintyre before snatching second on the outside of Copse.

Points leader Louis Sharp took fourth from Hitech’s Gerrard Xie, who then lost a further place to Sharp’s Rodin Motorsport team-mate Ugo Ugochukwu exiting Club corner before lap one was completed.

Kucharczyk pulled out a two-second lead over Cresswell in the first five laps, then doubled that advantage over the next four and edged further clear in the final two laps to seal his first GB3 win by 7.855 seconds.

Cresswell came home in a comfortable second, while Macintyre resisted early pressure from Sharp to take the final podium spot. Sharp’s only opportunity to pass came at the start of lap three into Copse, but he was then slow on the exit which allowed team-mate Ugochukwu to draw alongside and take fourth into Maggotts.

Sharp responded by immediately by diving back up the inside into Becketts, and the pair almost made contact when Ugochukwu got sideways on a kerb heading onto the Hangar Straight before Sharp moved back ahead at Stowe and maintained fourth until the finish.

With two laps to go Ugochukwu faded into the clutches of Xie, who tried a move on the outside of Brooklands before passing the McLaren junior on the inside at Woodcote to take the chequered flag in fifth.

Josh Irfan ran seventh early on before losing out to Velocity Racing Development by Arden’s James Hedley on lap two and the JHR Developments driver tumbled to 13th on the next lap. Hedley ran seventh until the final lap, when he wa hunted down and passed by Elite’s Jarrod Waberski into Copse.

JHR’s John Bennett, who like Hedley started from the grid’s fifth row after his tyres faded late on in qualifying, lost out on the opening lap to Rodin’s Arthur Rogeon, who had made up several places after jumping the start.

Bennett and Chris Dittmann Racing’s Martinius Stenshorne soon made it back past Rogeon, who was handed a 10s penalty and was eventually classified 16th. Meanwhile Stenshorne passed Bennett in the closing stages to finish ninth.

Race results (10 laps)