JHR Developments’ John Bennett set the quickest time in the final two sessions of testing at Oulton Park this week, with his session four effort of 1m28.569s being the fastest across the two days.
Having set a 1m28.732s in session three, at that point the best of the week, he then went even quicker with his final lap of testing late in the afternoon to lower the benchmark even further. His time is below the official race lap record at the Cheshire circuit, and only six tenths off last year's pole position.
That put him almost four tenths of a second clear of the field, which was headed by Rodin Motorsport’s potential GB3 candidate, who experienced the car for the first time this week.
Tymek Kucharczyk was the third fastest driver overall, and the lead Hitech Pulse-Eight runner, 0.076s further back from the Rodin car, with both setting their best times in the day’s second session.
The Polish driver was 0.061s clear of the other Rodin of reigning British F4 champion Louis Sharp, with the second Hitech car of Gerrard Xie fifth, and less than three hundredths of a second in arrears.
VRD by Arden’s Noah Ping saved his best for last to go sixth, ahead of the lead Elite car of Jarrod Waberski, who showed remarkable consistency throughout the two days, regularly lapping between the 1m29.1 and 1m29.3s bracket.
Waberski was just 0.039s ahead of teammate McKenzy Cresswell, who’s best time of the test came yesterday, though he lapped within 0.008s of that in the final session.
Will Macintyre (Hitech) and Josh Irfan (JHR) completed the day two top-10, which was covered by less than three quarters of a second. The top-12 drivers, completed by James Hedley (VRD by Arden) were within a second of Bennett’s outright pace.
Testing resumes at Donington Park next week (13-14 March).
GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Oulton Park testing day two combined result:
1. John Bennett, JHR Developments, 1m28.569s (session four)
2. Rodin 1, Rodin Motorsport, +0.398s (session two)
3. Tymek Kucharczyk, Hitech Pulse-Eight, +0.474s (session two)
4. Louis Sharp, Rodin Motorsport, +0.535s (session four)
5. Gerrard Xie, Hitech Pulse-Eight, +0.562s (session two)
6. Noah Ping, VRD by Arden, +0.567s (session four)
7. Jarrod Waberski, Elite Motorsport, +0.580s (session four)
8. McKenzy Cresswell, Elite Motorsport, +0.619s (session four)
9. Will Macintyre, Hitech Pulse-Eight, +0.679s (session two)
10. Josh Irfan, JHR Developments, +0.712s (session four)
11. Patrick Heuzenroeder, JHR Developments, +0.747s (session three)
12. James Hedley, VRD by Arden, +0.800s (session four)
13. Edward Pearson, Fortec Motorsports, +1.117s (session three)
14. Colin Queen, Fortec Motorsports, +1.244s (session four)
15. Hugo Schwarze, Elite Motorsport, +1.251s (session three)
16. Daniel Guinchard, Douglas Motorsport, +1.255s (session two)
17. Arthur Rogeon, Rodin Motorsport, +1.350s (session one)
18. Rishab Jain, Chris Dittmann Racing, +2.460s (session two)
19. Flynn Jackes, Chris Dittmann Racing, +2.522s (session three)
20. Seb Murray, Chris Dittmann Racing, +2.529s (session two)