Rodin Motorsport’s championship leader Louis Sharp topped the times as the GB3 Championship field commenced preparations for next weekend’s penultimate round of the season at Donington Park.
On the full Grand Prix layout at the East Midlands venue, Sharp’s best time of 1m22.194s in the fourth and final session of the day was the quickest ever recorded by a GB3 car at the circuit, with the existing lap record currently standing at 1m22.335s.
The New Zealander’s benchmark effort was over a quarter of a second clear of the field, headed by Hitech Pulse-Eight’s Will Macintyre. The Brit was just a thousandth of a second quicker than Arden’s impressive newcomer Max Taylor, the newly-crowned USF Juniors champion.
JHR’s John Bennett, who was fastest in session two was fourth fastest courtesy of his final session effort, 0.072s clear of the second Hitech of Gerrard Xie.
Title challenger Tymek Kucharczyk put the third Hitech car in sixth on the combined times, with the Pole setting his best lap in the first session.
Patrick Heuzenroeder (JHR) was seventh, just 0.016s further back and a tenth clear of the lead Fortec car, with the driver undesignated.
Elite Motorsport duo McKenzy Cresswell and Jarrod Waberski completed the day’s top-10, with Cresswell’s best time coming at the end of the day, and Waberski’s at the start.
A total of 21 cars recorded times during the day, with less than a second covering the top-13 runners, and just over two covering the entire field.
Other newcomers in action included F4 dominator Freddie Slater at Rodin (11th fastest), karting graduate Alex Kattoulas at Fortec (20th) and Formula Regional Americas front-runner Ryan Shehan at Hillspeed (21st).
The field will be back in action at Donington Park in one weeks’ time, when testing resumes ahead of the race event on 7/8 September.
GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Donington Park test result:
1. Louis Sharp, Rodin Motorsport, 1m22.194s
2. Will Macintyre, Hitech Pulse-Eight, +0.275s
3. Max Taylor, Arden Motorsport, +0.276s
4. John Bennett, JHR Developments, +0.375s
5. Gerrard Xie, Hitech Pulse-Eight, +0.447s
6. Tymek Kucharczyk, Hitech Pulse-Eight, +0.487s
7. Patrick Heuzenroeder, JHR Developments, +0.503s
8. Fortec 1, Fortec Motorsports, +0.620s
9. McKenzy Cresswell, Elite Motorsport, +0.640s
10. Jarrod Waberski, Elite Motorsport, +0.781s
11. Freddie Slater, Rodin Motorsport, +0.851s
12. Arthur Rogeon, Rodin Motorsport, +0.864s
13. Noah Ping, VRD Racing by Arden, +0.920s
14. Shawn Rashid, VRD Racing by Arden, +1.096s
15. Josh Irfan, JHR Developments, +1.210s
16. Hugo Schwarze, Elite Motorsport, +1.232s
17. Flynn Jackes, Chris Dittmann Racing, +1.356s
18. Aditya Kulkarni, Hillspeed, +1.363s
19. Seb Murray, Chris Dittmann Racing, +1.427s
20. Alex Kattoulas, Fortec Motorsport, +1.595s
21. Hillspeed 2, Hillspeed, +2.096s