Sharp storms from fifth to win GB3 race two at the Hungaroring

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Rodin Motorsport’s Louis Sharp boosted his title hopes with a stunning victory from fifth on the grid in the second GB3 contest at the Hungaroring.

Sharp scored his first triumph since the season-opening race at Oulton Park by charging into first place on lap one and then leading home his main title rivals Tymek Kucharczyk and William Macintyre to end Hitech GP’s seven-race win streak.

Hitech locked out the top three positions on the grid, with race one victor Gerrard Xie fending off Kucharczyk to lead into turn one. Sharp meanwhile immediately passed Elite Motorsport’s McKenzy Cresswell off the line and then swept around the outside of Macintrye for third at the first corner.

The New Zealander drove around the outside of Kucharczyk at turn two before completing the move into the next corner, and then snatched the lead into the chicane from Xie who immediately slowed on the exit and rejoined at the back of the field after making a pitstop.

Sharp controlled the remainder of the 11-lap contest to win by 1.995 seconds from Kucharczyk, with Macintyre a further two seconds behind. Having had a last-minute rush to make the grid after his car’s fire extinguisher went off in the team awning pre-race, Cresswell finished fourth ahead of JHR Developments’ Patrick Heuzenroeder who claimed his best result outside of a reversed-grid race.

Elite’s Jarrod Waberski was sixth ahead of JHR’s John Bennett, who muscled his way past Velocity Racing Development by Arden’s Noah Ping at turn five in the closing stages. Rodin’s James Hedley was ninth ahead of Elite’s Hugo Schwarze, while VRD’s Shawn Rashid avoided damage in an early collision with Chris Dittmann Racing’s Flynn Jackes to finish 11th.

Update: Kucharczyk has been disqualified from second after his car failed post-race compliance checks, with the fire extinguisher in his car deemed to have been inoperable througout the duration of the race due to it being activated on the formation lap.  Macintyre is therefore promoted to second ahead of Cresswell. The amended results affect the championship battle, with Macintyre moving into the points lead ahead of Sharp, and Kucharczyk dropping to third.

Race results (11 laps)