O’Sullivan and Chadwick star as GB3 graduates impress at Silverstone

O’Sullivan and Chadwick star as GB3 graduates impress at Silverstone

03 July 2022

Graduates from the GB3 Championship and it’s BRDC British F3 predecessor impressed during the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone, with a total of four podiums across the event.

A stunning maiden FIA F3 pole position for reigning GB3 Champion Zak O’Sullivan was followed up by his first podium of the year, while Jamie Chadwick was a dominant W Series race winner on Saturday.

Meanwhile, there were F3 podiums for Ollie Bearman and Reece Ushijima, who took his first top-three result of the season.

Carlin’s O’Sullivan’s was “very happy” with what he described as an unexpected Feature Race pole position, after he qualified 0.027s ahead of the pack on Friday.

During the race on Sunday morning, the Williams Academy driver more than held his own with several stints at the front and finished second, 0.9s away from winner Arthur Leclerc despite a last corner lunge from fellow GB3 graduate Bearman, who claimed his second podium of the season.

O’Sullivan said: "A really good feature race today managing to finish P2. I lost a position quite early on during the start to Leclerc. I managed to stay in the DRS for quite a long time which was good. There was a bit of pressure towards the end with Bearman getting up to P3 and it being very close across the line. A massive thanks to Carlin and Williams for their support. We’ve really improved the car over the past couple of days and started off the weekend well with pole position, so P2 is probably one of the best results we could’ve hoped for."

Ushijima’s podium came in Saturday’s Sprint Race which he started from pole, and the Japanese-American driver, who won two GB3 races at the circuit last year, was able to keep with the front-runners throughout the shorter contest, threatening for the lead and ultimately claimed third place after being overtaken late on.

Other GB3 graduates who enjoyed strong weekends included Kush Maini who claimed his best result yet with fourth place in the Sprint Race, while 2020 British F3 champion Kaylen Frederick also enjoyed his most promising weekend with fifth place in the same contest.

As for Chadwick, the 2018 British F3 race-winner continued her dominant run of form in W Series, as she claimed her fourth successive win of the year, 20 seconds clear of the rest of the field. The reigning double champion, also a member of the Williams Academy, has now won the last six races in the category, stretching back to last year’s race at the Circuit of the Americas.

She commented: "It feels really good to win here and that’s a monkey off my back having not won a W Series race in Britain before today. I’m super happy with that drive. I got a bit nervy with the rain at one point but managed to maintain a good gap to the guys fighting behind me which was nice. I was really hungry coming into this weekend as this is the race all of the British drivers want to win, so it means a hell of a lot."

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