Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Rodin Motorsport’s Louis Sharp was fastest on day one of GB3’s pre-event test on Brands Hatch’s Grand Prix layout, as James Hedley returned to the paddock with Chris Dittmann Racing.
The team is the fourth that Hedley has driven for this year, having made GB3 outings with Velocity Racing Development by Arden and Rodin in addition to making his FIA Formula 3 debut with Jenzer Motorsport at Monaco.
He was announced as contesting GB3’s season finale as testing began on Wednesday morning.
The quickest times of the day came in the third and final session, where points lead Sharp set a 1m19.187s to lead Hitech GP’s title outsider Will Macintyre by 0.244 seconds. Macintyre was one of five drivers not to post their personal best in that session.
Macintyre was quickest in session one, a 1m19.430s putting him over 0.3s clear of the field. Title rivals John Bennett (JHR Developments), Tymek Kucharczyk (Hitech) and Sharp joined him in the top four. Reigning GB3 champion and FIA F3 race-winner Callum Voisin, who is making a cameo with Rodin, was fifth and Fortec Motorsports’ Colin Queen was just 0.03s behind.
The pace was not lowered in session two, with Queen’s new personal best of 1m19.922s quick enough to lead the way by 0.066s from Bennett, who did not improve on his session one pace. Kucharczyk and Elite Motorsport’s Hugo Schwarze were separated by 0.03s in third and fourth, and Macintyre and JHR’s Patrick Heuzenroeder posted identical laptimes in fifth and sixth.
Sharp set his test-topping lap with just over two minutes remaining of the day’s action. Heuzenroeder, Kucharczyk, Queen and Elite’s McKenzy Cresswell and improved to occupy third to sixth in the overall classification, and Bennett again failed to improve so was shuffled down to seventh.
Elite’s Jarrod Waberski and Schwarze were eighth and ninth ahead of Hitech’s Gerrard Xie, while Voisin also could not better his time from the opening session and slipped back to 11th.
Reigning GB4 champion Tom Mills was another driver whose personal best laptime came in session one, and was 20th overall ahead of his GB3 debut with CDR.
Test results
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Louis Sharp | Rodin Motorsport | 1m19.186s | 43 | |
| 2 | Will Macintyre | Hitech GP | 1m19.430 | +0.244s | 39 |
| 3 | Patrick Heuzenroeder | JHR Developments | 1m19.555s | +0.369s | 47 |
| 4 | Tymek Kucharczyk | Hitech GP | 1m19.664s | +0.478s | 47 |
| 5 | Colin Queen | Fortec Motorsports | 1m19.573s | +0.487s | 43 |
| 6 | McKenzy Cresswell | Elite Motorsport | 1m19.716s | +0.530s | 42 |
| 7 | John Bennett | JHR Developments | 1m19.736s | +0.550s | 36 |
| 8 | Jarrod Waberski | Elite Motorsport | 1m19.871s | +0.685s | 41 |
| 9 | Hugo Schwarze | Elite Motorsport | 1m19.920s | +0.734s | 41 |
| 10 | Gerrard Xie | Hitech GP | 1m19.956s | +0.770s | 46 |
| 11 | Callum Voisin | Rodin Motorsport | 1m20.056s | +0.870s | 27 |
| 12 | Josh Irfan | JHR Developments | 1m20.071s | +0.885s | 37 |
| 13 | Arthur Rogeon | Rodin Motorsport | 1m20.153 | +0.967s | 39 |
| 14 | Seb Murray | Chris Dittmann Racing | 1m20.253s | +1.067s | 44 |
| 15 | James Hedley | Chris Dittmann Racing | 1m20.351s | +1.165s | 44 |
| 16 | Noah Ping | VRD by Arden | 1m20.488s | +1.302s | 39 |
| 17 | Shawn Rashid | VRD by Arden | 1m20.500s | +1.314s | 42 |
| 18 | Nikita Johnson | VRD by Arden | 1m20.978s | +1.792s | 44 |
| 19 | Aditya Kulkarni | Hillspeed | 1m20.987s | +1.801s | 44 |
| 20 | Tom Mills | Chris Dittmann Racing | 1m21.305s | +2.119s | 44 |
| 21 | Alex Kattoulas | Fortec Motorsports | 1m21.363s | +2.177s | 42 |