Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Championship leader Alex Ninovic was quickest in GB3’s two-day pre-event test on Silverstone’s Grand Prix layout.
The Rodin Motorsport driver set a best lap of 1m53.355s in Thursday’s third session to lead Elite Motorsport’s Will Macintyre by 0.276 seconds, as rain and red flags prevented his time from being beaten during Friday’s running.
Hitech GP’s line-up was reduced to two cars for the weekend after Nikita Johnson announced he will again race for the team in FIA Formula 3 instead, and its pairing of Deagen Fairclough and Keanu Al Azhari locked out the top of the timesheets in session one.
Fairclough posted a 2m00.825s in damp conditions to beat his team-mate by 0.176s, and he again edged out the Alpine Formula 1 junior to top spot with six minutes remaining in session two. However, with laptimes tumbling on a drying circuit, the duo were shuffled back to fourth and fifth by the session’s conclusion.
Two quicker efforts put Ninovic fastest, with a best lap of 1m53.506s, improving to second and third were his team-mate Abbi Pulling and Macintyre.=
Ninovic lowered the pace further to a 1m53.355s in the final minutes of session three, with Macintyre also improving to end the day 0.276s shy of the Australian in second.
Macintyre matched his day one personal best to lead Friday’s opening session by 0.117s from Ninovic, with the arrival of rain with five minutes remaining curtailing drivers’ run plans. Rain returned prior to session five, where two red flag periods prevented any meaningful running.
That left Ninovic top of the test’s overall classification ahead of Macintyre. Pulling was third ahead of Fairclough and Al Azhari – the trio not improving on their session two times – while Argenti with Prema’s Reza Seewooruthun set a personal best in session three to edge out Velocity Racing Development.
VRD’s Patricio Gonzalez also brought the final session to a halt by going off at Copse, but was the fastest of the rookie quintet in 19th.
Test results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Ninovic | Rodin Motorsport | 1m53.355s | 50 | |
| 2 | Will Macintyre | Elite Motorsport | 1m53.631s | +0.276s | 51 |
| 3 | Abbi Pulling | Rodin Motorsport | 1m53.752s | +0.397s | 50 |
| 4 | Deagen Fairclough | Hitech | 1m53.921s | +0.566s | 56 |
| 5 | Keanu Al Azhari | Hitech | 1m54.008s | +0.653s | 53 |
| 6 | Reza Seewooruthun | Argenti with Prema | 1m54.050s | +0.695s | 38 |
| 7 | Hugo Schwarze | VRD | 1m54.067s | +0.712s | 51 |
| 8 | Patrick Heuzenroeder | Xcel Motorsport | 1m54.098s | +0.743s | 49 |
| 9 | Enzo Tarnvanichkul | VRD | 1m54.248s | +0.893s | 53 |
| 10 | Noah Lisle | JHR Developments | 1m54.255s | +0.900s | 52 |
| 11 | Bianca Bustamante | Elite Motorsport | 1m54.446s | +1.091s | 50 |
| 12 | Kai Daryanani | JHR Developments | 1m54.460s | +1.105s | 54 |
| 13 | Yanpu Cui | Hillspeed | 1m54.468s | +1.113s | 44 |
| 14 | Lucas Fluxa | Argenti with Prema | 1m54.392s | +1.037s | 55 |
| 15 | Gianmarco Pradel | Rodin Motorsport | 1m54.404s | +1.049s | 49 |
| 16 | Michael Shin | Hillspeed | 1m54.397s | +1.042s | 42 |
| 17 | Jack Sherwood | Xcel Motorsport | 1m54.511s | +1.156s | 49 |
| 18 | Flynn Jackes | Elite Motorsport | 1m54.855s | +1.500s | 49 |
| 19 | Patricio Gonzalez | VRD | 1m55.029s | +1.674s | 52 |
| 20 | Yevan David | Xcel Motorsport | 1m54.809s | +1.454s | 48 |
| 21 | August Raber | Argenti with Prema | 1m55.189s | +1.834s | 56 |
| 22 | Divy Nandan | JHR Developments | 1m55.437s | +2.082s | 53 |
| 23 | James Higgins | Chris Dittmann Racing | 1m55.423s | +2.068s | 48 |
| 24 | Nicolas Stati | Chris Dittmann Racing | 1m56.152s | +2.797s | 48 |
| 25 | Rodrigo Gonzalez | Chris Dittmann Racing | 1m55.742s | +2.387s | 53 |