Ninovic ends GB3’s Silverstone pre-event testing on top

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Rodin Motorsport’s Alex Ninovic was quickest on day two of pre-event testing ahead of this weekend’s GB3 season-opener at Silverstone.

Ninovic set an unofficial GB3 lap record of 1m51.971s during the first of two test sessions on Friday to eclipse Freddie Slater’s day one benchmark by over half a second.

Hillspeed’s Slater led at the halfway stage of session one with a 1m53.183s, with Rodin duo Ninovic and Gianmarco Pradel 0.1 seconds behind him.

Most of the field fitted brand new tyres for their second runs, and Slater used his set to improve his time by 0.4s. Xcels’s Patrick Heuzenroeder and Pradel both enjoyed brief spells at the top before Slater responded with two quicker laps to head the pack once more.

Pradel eclipsed Slater’s new benchmark by 0.005s with four minutes remaining only to be denied moments later by Ninovic’s test-topping effort. Heuzenroeder was shuffled back to fourth, with JHR’s Kai Daryanani fifth ahead of Elite Motorsport’s Will Macintyre.

Slater led the final session with a new personal best of 1m52.099s which reduced Ninovic’s overall advantage to 0.128s. Pradel and Heuzenroeder were third and fourth in the day’s classification, with Daryanani fifth ahead of Macintyre and Rodin’s Abbi Pulling. Of those five, only Daryanani improved in the second session.

Hillspeed’s Kanato Le was eighth, Nikita Johnson was the fastest Hitech GP driver in ninth, while JHR’s Noah Lisle completed the top 10. 

Chris Dittmann Racing has changed its driver on the eve of the new season. Mercedes-AMG junior Rashid Al Dhaheri, who initially announced a partial GB3 programme, is no longer taking part.

The team will instead field a car for Divy Nandan, who only announced his deal on Friday morning after completing his first laps in Thursday’s pre-event test. The 22-year-old contested two rounds of British F4 with CDR in 2022 and returned after 18 months away from racing last year in Indian F4, where he scored four podiums and came fourth in the standings.

Experienced GB3 campaigner James Hedley also drove for CDR at the test as he weighed up whether to become another last-minute addition for round one, but has not confirmed whether he will take part.

Testing results