Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Points leader Louis Sharp made the perfect start to the penultimate round of the GB3 season by taking two poles in a damp and misty qualifying at Donington Park.
The Rodin Motorsport driver denied title rival Tymek Kucharczyk moments before the session was ended prematurely with two minutes remaining, while fellow title contender John Bennett was fourth behind Kucharczyk’s Hitech GP team-mate Gerrard Xie.
Sharp led the way initially in the 20-minute session with an opening effort of 1m37.215s, and the New Zealander lowered the pace on his next two laps, reaching 1m34.302s.
His team-mate and debutant Freddie Slater soon lapped 0.234 seconds quicker, and Arthur Rogeon briefly made it an all-Rodin top three by taking third ahead of Hitech trio Kucharczyk, Xie and Will Macintyre. Sharp responded to reclaim top spot by 0.3s, while Fortec Motorsports’ Colin Queen jumped up the order to fourth.
JHR Developments’ Bennett moved into contention at the halfway stage by going third fastest, while Xie initially reduced Sharp’s advantage to 0.2s before improving to snatch first place by 0.1s. Having taken third away from Bennett, Kucharczyk improved further to displace Xie by just 0.002s with less than five minutes remaining.
But two minutes later, Sharp produced a 1m33.263s to pip the Polish racer by 0.039s with the red flags then shown after Velocity Racing Development by Arden’s Noah Ping slid into the gravel at Redgate moments after moving into fifth.
With the session not restarted, Sharp took pole for race one ahead of Kucharczyk and Xie, and the top three starting order for race two is set to be the same – the grid for that contest decided on drivers’ second-best laptimes.
Bennett improved on his final lap before the stoppage but remained fourth ahead of Ping, while Slater ended his first GB3 qualifying in sixth and is due to start two places higher in race two ahead of Ping and Bennett. Elite’s Motorsport’s Hugo Schwarze and Macintyre both improved on their final efforts to end the session in seventh and eighth respectively ahead of Queen.
Max Taylor qualified 10th on his GB3 debut for Arden, with Elite Motorsport’s McKenzy Cresswell – who was as high as fourth at one stage – shuffled back to 11th ahead of Rogeon who provisionally took reversed-grid pole for race three.
Chris Dittmann Racing confirmed on Saturday morning that Flynn Jackes has been ruled out for the rest of the season after sustaining a broken leg in a road traffic incident on his way home from Donington Park on Thursday.
Fortec’s Edward Pearson has also ended his GB3 campaign early after making a switch to Euroformula with Motopark.
Qualifying results
Race 1 grid
1 Louis Sharp Rodin Motorsport 1m33.263s
2 Tymek Kucharczyk Hitech GP +0.039s
3 Gerrard Xie Hitech GP +0.041s
4 John Bennett JHR Developments +0.266s
5 Noah Ping VRD by Arden +0.282s
6 Freddie Slater Rodin Motorsport +0.468s
7 Hugo Schwarze Elite Motorsport +0.489s
8 Will Macintyre Hitech GP +0.536s
9 Colin Queen Fortec Motorsports +0.686s
10 Max Taylor Arden +0.750s
Race 2 grid
1 Sharp 1m33.465s
2 Kucharczyk +0.163s
3 Xie +0.189s
4 Slater +0.302s
5 Ping +0.349s
6 Bennett +0.422s
7 Macintyre +0.529s
8 Queen +0.658s
9 Taylor +0.669s
10 Arthur Rogeon Rodin Motorsport +0.869s