Home Formula 3GB3 Kush Maini joins Hitech for BRDC British F3 test, goes fastest

Kush Maini joins Hitech for BRDC British F3 test, goes fastest

by Ida Wood

Kush Maini made a return to BRDC British Formula 3 in the championship’s pre-event test at Oulton Park, and went fastest for new entrant Hitech GP.

Hitech has added British F3 this year to its roster of junior single-seater programmes, and has Reece Ushijima signed to race in one of its cars.

Maini, who finished third in British F3 in 2018 and was sixth in the Formula Renault Eurocup last year, has not been confirmed by the team as racing its second car in this weekend’s season opener.

The 19-year-old Indian was originally due to return to the Eurocup this year with R-ace GP, but his deal fell apart pre-season as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The best laptime of the day was set by Maini in the second morning session, going 0.307 seconds faster than Lanan Racing’s Bart Horsten.

The day ended with Maini and Horsten dicing over top spot again, and it was Maini who once again topped the session.

There were several drivers who made improvements in the final session, with Douglas Motorsport’s Ulysse De Pauw jumping up into sixth place.

Less than one tenth of a second covered third to sixth, with Louis Foster (Double R Racing) leading session one pacesetter Josh Skelton (Chris Dittmann Racing), series returnee Kaylen Frederick (Carlin) and De Pauw.

The top 11 cars were covered by less than a second, with Hillspeed’s Oliver Clarke and Sasakorn Chaimongkol both making late improvements to jump to eighth and 15th respectively. Chaimongkol only recorded representative laps in the final session.

Fortec Motorsports and JHR Developments were absent from the test, while Double R was missing its British Formula 4 graduate Sebastian Alvarez.

 

Test results

Pos Driver Team Time Gap Laps
1 Kush Maini Hitech GP 1m31.833s 80
2 Bart Horsten Lanan Racing 1m32.140s +0.307s 102
3 Louis Foster Double R Racing 1m32.200s +0.367s 79
4 Josh Skelton Chris Dittmann Racing 1m32.274s +0.441s 85
5 Kaylen Frederick Carlin 1m32.291s +0.458s 83
6 Ulysse De Pauw Douglas Motorsport 1m32.292s +0.459s 81
7 Nico Varrone Chris Dittmann Racing 1m32.511s +0.678s 82
8 Oliver Clarke Hillspeed 1m32.633s +0.800s 86
9 Kiern Jewiss Douglas Motorsport 1m32.644s +0.811s 79
10 Piers Prior Lanan Racing 1m32.718s +0.885s 87
11 Benjamin Pedersen Double R Racing 1m32.811s +0.978s 86
12 Manaf Hijjawi Douglas Motorsport 1m32.939s +1.106s 61
13 Guilherme Peixoto Carlin 1m33.002s +1.169s 74
14 Joshua Mason Lanan Racing 1m33.066s +1.233s 93
15 Sasakorn Chaimongkol Hillspeed 1m33.178s +1.346s 34
16 Reece Ushijima Hitech GP 1m33.184s +1.351s 91
17 Nazim Azman Carlin 1m33.258s +1.425s 86