Home Formula 3GB3 Ushijima holds off O’Sullivan for first BRDC British F3 win at Silverstone

Ushijima holds off O’Sullivan for first BRDC British F3 win at Silverstone

by Steve Whitfield

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Reece Ushijima took his first BRDC British Formula 3 win by resisting a late charge from Zak O’Sullivan in the opening race of the weekend at Silverstone.

After starting from pole, Hitech GP driver Ushijima maintained the lead off the line ahead of O’Sullivan, and pulled out more by over a second during the first six laps on the Grand Prix layout.

Carlin’s O’Sullivan then halved the gap on the next lap, and continued to edge closer, but Ushijima held on to win by 0.382s.

Bart Horsten made it a double podium for Hitech, setting a series of fastest laps in the closing stages to get within 0.9s of O’Sullivan by the finish, having been over three seconds behind at one stage.

Elite Motorsport’s Javier Sagrera resisted pressure from Fortec’s Roberto Faria for most of the 10-lap encounter to finish fourth, the pair separated by one second at the chequered flag.

Dexter Patterson finished a 1.8s behind in sixth for Douglas Motorsport, just ahead of Hitech’s Sebastian Alvarez.

Arden’s Alex Connor finished eighth ahead of the Carlin duo of Christian Mansell and Bryce Aron, with Chris Dittmann Racing’s Ayrton Simmons moving up three places to 11th.

An early off dropped Arden’s Frederick Lubin down the order from fourth place, before pitting to remove grass from his car.

Elite’s Tom Lebbon pulled out of the race on the opening lap with an issue.

Race results (10 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Reece Ushijima Hitech GP 19m32.371s
2 Zak O’Sullivan Carlin +0.382s
3 Bart Horsten Hitech GP +1.352s
4 Javier Sagrera Elite Motorsport +6.250s
5 Roberto Faria Fortec Motorsports +7.306s
6 Dexter Patterson Douglas Motorsport +9.142s
7 Sebastian Alvarez Hitech GP +10.246s
8 Alex Connor Arden +11.953s
9 Christian Mansell Carlin +13.838s
10 Bryce Aron Carlin +14.356s
11 Ayrton Simmons Chris Dittmann Racing +17.356s
12 Jorge Garfias Elite Motorsport +20.860s
13 Mikkel Grundtvig Fortec Motorsports +31.226s
14 Reema Juffali Douglas Motorsport +31.384s
15 Max Marzorati Chris Dittmann Racing +35.889s
16 Frederick Lubin Arden +1m04.976s
Ret Tom Lebbon Elite Motorsport
Fastest lap: Horsten, 1m56.226s

Championship standings
1 O’Sullivan 107   2 Ushijima 96   3 Ollie Bearman 74   4 Mansell 62   5 Horsten 60   6 Sagrera 58   7 Simmons 54   8 Patterson 53   9 Aron 51   10 Lubin 50