Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Hitech GP’s Tymek Kucharczyk topped a damp GB3 qualifying on Silverstone’s Grand Prix layout to secure pole for the first two races of the weekend.
The Polish driver lapped over half a second faster than team-mate Will Macintyre in a session where laptimes tumbled on a drying circuit, giving Hitech a front-row lockout for Saturday’s opening contest. Elite Motorsport’s McKenzy Cresswell will start alongside Kucharczyk in race two on Sunday, the grid decided by driver’s second-best laptimes.
The 20-minute session was declared wet before the start, and Velocity Racing Developmeny by Arden’s pre-event testing pacesetter James Hedley was quickest by over two seconds after each driver completed their first flying lap.
JHR Developments’ John Bennett lowered the pace to a 2m09.439s next time by but that was immediately beaten by Noah Ping’s 2m09.415s, and Arthur Rogeon then edged Rodin Motorsport team-mate Louis Sharp to top spot by 0.035 seconds with a 2m09.343s.
Bennett and Hedley both improved on their next laps before Kucharczyk went fastest by 0.004s while Elite’s Jarrod Waberski moved up to third. Bennett briefly reclaimed the advantage but was then displaced by both Hedley and Kucharczyk, the former lowering the pace to 2m07.399s, and Hitech’s Gerrard Xie climbed to fourth ahead of Waberski and Sharp.
There was a short red flag period at the halfway stage due to Chris Dittmann Racing’s Seb Murray spinning at Club, and Josh Irfan was the first out of the pits at the resumption and soon set a new 2m07.388s benchmark. Following behind him, Bennett and Hedley lapped even faster, the latter posting a 2m06.349s.
Kucharczyk moved back ahead with a 2m06.201s, and then improved further to a 2m05.103s on his next lap to lead Macintyre by 0.5s. The top two did not improve on their next efforts, while Cresswell climbed to third and Xie to fourth.
Already provisionally holding double pole, Kucharczyk lapped fractionally quicker after the chequered flag fell to end with a new best of 2m05.083s. Macintyre and Cresswell retained second and third for race one despite not making further improvements, but Cresswell posted his second-best effort at the end to take a race two front row spot away from Macintyre.
Xie ensured all three Hitech cars will start from the top four in the first two contests, with points leader Sharp fifth fastest despite having a late lap deleted for exceeding track limits.
McLaren junior Ugo Ugochukwu was sixth quickest for Rodin ahead of team-mate Irfan and Waberski, while Hedley and Bennett slipped back to ninth and 10th. Having qualified 12th, JHR’s Patrick Heuzenroeder provisionally claims reversed-grid pole for race three.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Tymek Kucharczyk Hitech GP 2m05.083s
2 Will Macintyre Hitech GP +0.535s
3 McKenzy Cresswell Elite Motorsport +0.799s
4 Gerrard Xie Hitech GP +0.860s
5 Louis Sharp Rodin Motorsport +0.896s
6 Ugo Ugochukwu Rodin Motorsport +0.907s
7 Josh Irfan JHR Developments +0.991s
8 Jarrod Waberski Elite Motorsport +1.146s
9 James Hedley VRD by Arden +1.266s
10 John Bennett JHR Developments +1.280s
Race 2 grid
1 Kucharczyk 2m05.103s
2 Cresswell +0.870s
3 Macintyr +0.899s
4 Xie +0.959s
5 Ugochukwu +1.159s
6 Irfan +1.164s
7 Sharp +1.284s
8 Bennett +1.401s
9 Waberski +1.435s
10 Hedley +1.488s