Slater sets the pace as GB3 pre-event testing begins at Silverstone

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Hillspeed’s part-timer Freddie Slater continued where he left off in GB3 pre-season testing by going quickest on day one of the Silverstone pre-event test.

Slater topped two out of Thursday’s three half-hour sessions to edge out Rodin Motorsport duo Alex Ninovic and Gianmarco Pradel by little more than 0.1 seconds in the overall classification.

JHR Developments’ Kai Daryanani was fourth ahead of Argenti with Prema’s Lucas Fluxa, while Abbi Pulling completed a strong day for Rodin by being 0.4s shy of the pace in sixth. One second separated the top 20 drivers.

Xcel Motorsport’s Patrick Heuzenroeder was fastest in session one, having led the way several times. Slater moved to the top just past the halfway mark with a 1m53.450s, with JHR’s Noah Lisle eclipsing that time by 0.1s with five minutes remaining.

Heuzenroeder briefly reclaimed the advantage by 0.04s, before Lisle went quickest again, but Heuzenroeder responded with a session-topping 1m53.001s on his next lap. A further improvement from Lisle left him 0.131s behind, while Hitech GP’s Nikita Johnson pipped Slater, Elite Motorsport’s Will Macintyre and Xcel’s Dion Gowda to third by a small margin.

Pradel led Pulling with a 1m54.550s when session two was red-flagged early on, and several other drivers enjoyed brief spells at the top once the track went green again.

The day’s test place was lowered to a 1m52.693s by Daryanani with seven minutes remaining, but Slater responded with two faster laps to beat Daryanani to first place by 0.186s with a 1m52.507s. Ninovic took third ahead of Fluxa, while Pradel was shuffled back to fifth. 

Nobody was able to beat Slater’s earlier benchmark in session three, but went quicker still with a 1m52.498s to head the leaderboard once more. Ninovic, Pradel and Pulling also set their personal bests in the final sessions, while Daryanani and Fluxa did not improve on their session two times.

Heuzenroeder’s session one time left him seventh overall ahead of Hillspeed’s Kanato Le. Hitech’s Deagen Fairclough ended a rather low-key day 0.582s off the pace in ninth, with Macintyre setting an identical time to take 10th.

The grid for this weekend’s season-opener has grown to a record-equalling 25 cars, with Flynn Jackes completing Elite’s line-up before the day’s action got underway. The Australian came 21st in GB3 last year with Chris Dittmann Racing, his season cut short after being injured in a road traffic accident with two rounds remaining.

Emmo FIttipaldi, son of two-time Formula 1 world champion Emerson, joined the test with Fortec. The 18-year-old, who will be racing with MP Motorsport in Eurocup-3 this year after coming sixth in its winter championship, was less than a second off the pace in 18th.

CDR’s confirmed driver Rashid Al Dhaheri was absent on Thursday, but the team ran two drivers in testing. One of those was Divy Nandan, who came fourth in Indian F4 last year.

Testing results