Cresswell charges to fastest time on opening day of Donington Park test

Cresswell charges to fastest time on opening day of Donington Park test

22 March 2023

Elite Motorsport’s McKenzy Cresswell posted the quickest time of the first day of the Donington Park media day test, lapping exactly one tenth of a second quicker than Douglas Motorsport’s Tymek Kucharczyk.

Cresswell, who has been rapid at the other test events so far this winter, set his best lap with just under two hours remaining of the session, while Polish contender Kucharczyk set his best time in the final moments of the seven hours of running.

James Hedley, testing with Arden VRD and eying a seat at the squad was third quickest and just over a tenth of a second away from the top spot after setting a string of fast laps inside the final hour of the day.

Rodin Carlin’s Callum Voisin was one of several drivers to complete over 100 laps during the day and was fourth quickest, 0.065s away from Hedley and 0.074s ahead of JHR’s Matthew Rees in fifth.

GB4 graduate Jarrod Waberski continued his strong pre-season with Fortec Motorsport and was sixth quickest, 0.018s ahead of British F4 graduate Joseph Loake in the second JHR machine.

Zak Taylor placed his Chris Dittmann Racing car inside the top-eight, with Rodin Carlin’s Costa Toparis and Arden VRD’s Nico Christodoulou completing a top-10 covered by 0.5 seconds. Christodulou was the only driver in the top-20 to set his fastest time in the morning session, where he was fastest. Just over a second separated the top-21 drivers.

A total of 25 drivers were on track at Donington Park today, with 24 recording lap times, with only Arden VRD’s Noah Ping not running with a timing transponder.

Day one pace setter Cresswell said: “This is how we want it, obviously it’s just testing but we have a good feeling as we get closer to Oulton Park. We have made a lot of progress as a team which is why we are here, and I’m feeling good in the car and with the team so we have high hopes heading to round one.

“Tomorrow looks like it will be wet, and I’ll never turn down a bit of wet running. It’s something that us drivers sometimes look forward to, because we get to practice our feel out there. Last year we didn’t get a whole lot of wet days so it will be nice to get out on a set of wets and see what we can do.

“We’ve made so many improvements throughout these last few weeks, and we’re looking good heading to round one. We have to keep working though, not get complacent, keep chipping away, find more time and hopefully by the time we get to Oulton we’ll be right on it.”

Testing resumes tomorrow at Donington Park.

GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Donington Park media day test day one result:
1. McKenzy Cresswell, Elite Motorsport, 1m22.755s
2. Tymek Kucharczyk, Douglas Motorsport, +0.100s
3. James Hedley, Arden VRD, +0.103s
4. Callum Voisin, Rodin Carlin, +0.168s
5. Matthew Rees, JHR Developments, +0.242s
6. Jarrod Waberski, Fortec Motorsports, +0.452s
7. Joseph Loake, JHR Developments, +0.470s
8. Zak Taylor, Chris Dittmann Racing, +0.495s
9. Costa Toparis, Rodin Carlin, +0.515s
10. Nico Christodoulou, Arden VRD, +0.572s
11. John Bennett, Rodin Carlin, +0.572s
12. Souta Arao, Hitech Pulse-Eight, +0.578s
13. Max Esterson, Fortec Motorsports, +0.586s
14. Oliver Stewart, Elite Motorsport, +0.605s
15. Arthur Rogeon, Chris Dittmann Racing, +0.607s
16. David Morales, JHR Developments, +0.660s
17. Michael Shin, Hitech Pulse-Eight, +0.710s
18. Ayato Iwasaki, Elite Motorsport, +0.885s
19. Alex Dunne, Hitech Pulse-Eight, +0.905s
20. Shawn Rashid, Douglas Motorsport, +1.038s
21. Lucas Staico, Douglas Motorsport, +1.074s
22. Gerrard Xie, Hillspeed, +1.482s
23. Daniel Mavlyutov, Hillspeed, +2.144s
24. Edward Pearson, Fortec Motorsport, +2.684s

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