Home Formula 3GB3 Rodin’s Rogeon notches up another reversed-grid GB3 win

Rodin’s Rogeon notches up another reversed-grid GB3 win

by Steve Whitfield

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Rodin Motorsport’s Arthur Rogeon led lights-to-flag in GB3 race three at Donington Park, as team-mate Louis Sharp strengthened his grip on the title.

The circuit had dried up following the wet conditions earlier in the day, and Rogeon made good use of pole to lead fellow front row starter McKenzy Cresswell into Redgate.

The Frenchman maintained a 0.7-second advantage over the Elite Motorsport driver in the early laps and then gradually edged further away to take the chequered flag 2.3s clear for his third win in a reversed-grid race.

Fortec Motosports’ Colin Queen resisted a challenge from the fast-starting Will Macintyre into turn one on the opening lap to hold third. Despite remaining ahead of the Hitech GP driver until the finish, the American was denied a maiden podium by a five-second track limits penalty and was demoted to eighth.

Arden’s Max Taylor ran fifth on the road throughout but, having accumulated 15s in track limits penalties, was shuffled back to 14th in the finishing order.

Title contender John Bennett was therefore promoted to fourth, the JHR Developments driver having passed Rodin’s Freddie Slater early on.

Points leader Sharp made early progress from 12th on the grid to catch Slater. The Rodin pair went side-by-side into Goddards and then again through the Craner curves and, having been unable to find a way by, Sharp explicitly signalled his frustrations out of the cockpit towards his team-mate.

The squabble fizzled out from there, with Slater remaining in fifth until the finish. Sharp crucially outscored title rival Tymek Kucharczyk by finishing one place ahead of the Hitech driver in sixth. The New Zealander heads to the Brands Hatch season finale later this month with a 33-point lead over Bennett, who reclaimed second in the standings from Kucharczyk.

Kucharczyk’s team-mate Gerrard Xie was classified one place behind Queen in ninth, with Hillpeed’s Aditya Kulkarni in 10th.

Race results (17 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Arthur Rogeon Rodin Motorsport
2 McKenzy Cresswell Elite Motorsport +2.314s
3 William Macintyre Hitech GP +3.658s
4 John Bennett JHR Developments +4.818s
5 Freddie Slater Rodin Motorsport +5.804s
6 Louis Sharp Rodin Motorsport +6.161s
7 Tymek Kucharczyk Hitech GP +7.554s
8 Colin Queen Fortec Motorsports +7.929s
9 Gerrard Xie Hitech GP +9.163s
10 Aditya Kulkarni Hillspeed +13.177s
11 Nikita Johnson VRD by Arden +15.454s
12 Jarrod Waberski Elite Motorsport +18.128s
13 Shawn Rashid VRD by Arden +18.501s
14 Max Taylor Arden +19.182s
15 Noah Ping VRD by Arden +20.081s
16 Seb Murray Chris Dittmann Racing +22.839s
17 Patrick Heuzenroeder JHR Developments +23.748s
18 Hugo Schwarze Elite Motorsport +24.201s
19 Jacob Douglas Chris Dittmann Racing +29.799s
20 Alex Kattoulas Fortec Motorsports +31.921s
21 Josh Irfan JHR Developments +1m19.859s
Fastest lap:

Championship standings
1 Sharp 422   2 Bennett 389   3 Kucharczyk 386   4 Macintyre 334   5 Cresswell 314   6 Xie 252   7 Waberski 244   8 Rogeon 212   9 Ugo Ugochukwu 185   10 Ping 185