Pradel leads second day of Silverstone GB3 test

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Rodin Motorsport’s Gianmarco Pradel was quickest on the second and final day of this week’s GB3 test at Silverstone.

Pradel topped two out of three sessions to finish 0.268 seconds clear of Mercedes Formula 1 junior Yuanpu Cui who was making his first appearance for Argenti with Prema ahead of the new season.

The first session took place on a damp circuit, with only 14 drivers setting a lap time. Elite Motorsport’s Will Macintyre was displaced from top spot by JHR Developments’ Kai Daryanani moments before a red flag, and there were four minutes left on the clock when the session resumed.

Macintyre used that time to briefly reclaim the advantage as the chequered flag fell with a 1m57.186s, but he was almost immediately beaten by JHR duo James Hedley and Noah Lisle, the latter ending up fastest by 0.5s by registering a 1m56.578s.

Lap times tumbled on a dry circuit in session two, with Xcel Motorsport’s Patrick Huezenroeder, Pradel and Argenti’s Reza Seewooruthun each lowering the pace in the opening minutes.

Pradel reclaimed top spot with a 1m52.894s, and he remained there for the next 12 minutes until Hitech GP’s Deagen Fairclough went quickest by 0.1s. Pradel responded with two faster laps to lead again by 0.4s ahead of his team-mate Alex Ninovic who improved to second ahead of Fairclough, and Heuzenroeder then reduced Pradel’s advantage to 0.2s.

There was further activity in the final minute of the session, with Pradel beating his own benchmark by 0.03s to finish quickest with a 1m52.201s, and Hitech GP’s Nikita Johnson moved up to second ahead of Heuzenroeder with a lap 0.207s shy of Pradel’s time. Fairclough pipped Ninovic to fourth with his final effort, and Rodin’s Abbi Pulling leapfrogged Seewooruthun and Macintyre into sixth.

The final session was disrupted by an early red flag, following which Heuzenroeder moved to the top ahead of his team-mate Jack Sherwood with a 1m53.013s. Pradel soon beat that time by 0.09s and then improved by a further 0.7s before Johnson set a personal best to claim first place by 0.017s.

Cui snatched the quickest time by 0.026s with nine minutes remaining by posting a 1m52.277s, but he was pipped three minutes later by Pradel as he set the fastest lap of the day.

Ninovic also set a personal best late on to edge out Johnson to third, while Heuzenroeder ended up fifth overall in the combined classification despite not improving in the final session. Seewooruthun and Fairclough both went quicker in session three to end the day within 0.5s of the outright pace in sixth and seventh.

Pulling’s session two best left her eighth overall ahead of Macintyre and Velocity Racing Development’s Hugo Schwarze, with one second covering the top 10 drivers.

Aston Martin GT racer Jamie Day tested for Xcel Motorsport on Tuesday and was 2.5s shy of the pace in 22nd.

With nobody beating his pacesetting time from Monday, Hillspeed’s Freddie Slater ended the test fastest overall despite skipping day two to travel to this week’s FIA Formula 3 test in Bahrain with AIX Racing.

Combined day two results