Voisin fastest in GB3 and Mills leads GB4 in testing at Donington Park

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Rodin Carlin’s Callum Voisin was fastest in GB3’s two-day pre-season test at Donington Park, as less than a second covered the top 21 drivers using transponders.

McKenzy Cresswell led the way on Wednesday, which consisted of two sessions. He set an early 1m24.416s benchmark, which was soon bettered by Matthew Rees and Joseph Loake.

Despite a couple of excursions across the grass at Old Hairpin, Nico Christodoulou ended the morning session fastest with a 1m23.327s lap ahead of Loake, Rees and Voisin.

Rees set a new best of 1m23.271s inside hour one of the afternoon session before Voisin set two quicker laps, but Cresswell then set a 1m22.755s to end the day on top.

James Hedley, who tested for Arden while he evaluates a second season in GB3, got within 0.107s of Cresswell but a late effort put Douglas Motorsport’s Tymek Kucharczyk into second.

Fortec Motorsports’ Max Esterson suffered an exhaust issue that burnt his car’s bodywork and wiring loom in the morning before going off at Fogarty esses in the afternoon, and team-mate Edward Pearson also damaged his car early on.

Michael Shin and Shawn Rashid lost front wings in separate incidents, and Arthur Rogeon and Daniel Mavlyutov also caused red flags during the day.

Mavlyutov and John Bennett brought out red flags in Thursday’s first session, which was topped by Hedley with a 1m23.742ss. Rees and Loake were within 0.175s of his pace.

Esterson’s test was ended in the next session after hitting the barriers and damaging his car’s rear. Rees lowered the pace in that session with a 1m22.476s laptime.

The pace picked up further in the two afternoon sessions, the first led by Voisin with a 1m22.474s before Rees went quickest again by 0.034s.

Rees and Loake were the only two on track to not improve in the final session, with Voisin setting the fastest lap of the test -a 1m22.365s – in the final minutes of running before rain halted proceedings to better Rees’ effort from the previous session.

Hedley was third overall ahead of David Morales and Jarrod Waberski, while karting graduate Rogeon impressed in sixth. Noah Ping drove for Arden, but had his transponder turned off.

GB4 tested on Thursday too, alongside several British F4 runners. Kevin Mills Racing’s Tom Mills was fastest in all four sessions, but he is not expected to race in GB4 this year.

His best lap – a 1m28.172s – came in session two, which was the quickest session for every driver bar Daniel Guinchard who peaked in session one.

Josh Irfan tested for Elite and was second fastest, 0.339s off the pace, and may do the season-opening round alongside his British F4 campaign with Carlin.

Liam McNeilly was third, while Fortec’s Colin Queen ended the day fourth despite being in a huge crash that caused a lengthy red flag period in session three.

He was collected by another car that lost control approaching Old Hairpin, with both cars colliding again as they hit the barriers. Both drivers were unhurt, with Fortec confident it can rebuild Queen’s car for next week’s Snetterton test.

The final session was significantly slower due to rain, and privateer Dylan Hotchin caused a red flag period.

Test results