Queen quickest in GB4 pre-event test at Donington Park

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Fortec Motorsports’ Colin Queen was fastest during a two-day GB4 test ahead of this weekend’s latest round at Donington Park.

Queen set a best lap of 1m26.638s in Friday’s final session to edge Fox Motorsport’s Liam McNeilly by 0.009 seconds, with a subsequent crash for McNeilly bringing an early end to proceedings.

GB4 points leader Tom Mills led the way under sunny skies in the first of three sessions on Thursday, the Kevin Mills Racing driver recording a time of 1m27.871s, with Queen and Evans GP’s Cooper Webster his closest pursuers.

It was a similar story in session two, with Mills getting within 0.001s of his earlier benchmark to pip Webster by 0.069s while Queen was third.

Queen and Webster set an identical time of 1m28.085s in the final session of the day, with Queen taking top spot having posted his effort first. Mills was 0.034s shy of the pair in third.

Laptimes improved significantly on Friday, with Mills posting a 1m26.983s in the morning to finish 0.128s clear of Elite Motorsport’s Josh Irfan.

Webster moved to the top in the final minutes of a slightly slower session two only for Queen to respond with a 1m27.049s to edge the Australian by 0.029s.

All but two drivers recorded their best laps of the test in the final session, with McNeilly eclipsing Mills’ morning benchmark before improving further to a 1m26.647s.

Queen then lapped fractionally quicker still, with McNeilly responding with a fastest sector one time only to then end up in the barriers later in the lap on the exit of the Fogarty Esses. That brought out the red flags, with not enough time for the session to resume.

An improvement before the stoppage put Webster third overall, while Mills slipped back to fourth having been unable to improve on his best time during the afternoon. Irfan and KMR’s Jeremy Fairbairn ended the test within 0.5s of the pace in the fifth and sixth.

Evans GP fielded a third car for British Formula 4 racer Kai Daryanani, who will contest this weekend’s GB4 round as well as the final two events later in the season. Karting graduate Leon Wilson also tested for Arden.

GB4 will race four times this weekend, beginning on Saturday with the rescheduled opening encounter from the previous round at Silverstone which was postponed due to heavy rain.

Testing results