Hillspeed’s Freddie Slater topped all three sessions on the opening day of testing at Silverstone, as the British star recorded a new fastest ever GB3 lap time around the Grand Prix circuit.
Having topped sessions one and two with laps of 1m52.189s and 1m52.571s respectively, he saved his best for last. His fastest time of 1m51.753s, set at the end of the final session, is the first time a GB3 car has dipped below the 1m52s bracket, and he very nearly matched it on his final tour, lapping just 0.030s shy of the new benchmark.
His time is a second faster than the GB3 qualifying and race lap records at Silverstone, and 1.6 seconds quicker than any race lap recorded at the venue by the previous generation GB3 car last season.
Slater ended the day over half a second clear of the field, with Xcel Motorsport’s Patrick Heuzenroeder his nearest challenger.
Australian Heuzenroeder was 0.065s clear of Rodin Motorsport’s Gianmarco Pradel, who in turn was four thousandths of a second clear of Hitech’s Deagen Fairclough.
Lead Argenti with Prema contender Reza Seewooruthun was within a tenth of a second of Fairclough, and 0.088s ahead of the second Rodin machine of Alex Ninovic, who was the final driver within a second of Slater’s red hot pace.
Hitech’s Nikita Johnson was seventh fastest, 0.127s clear of Rodin’s Abbi Pulling, with Elite’s Will Macintyre and Xcel Motorsport’s Dion Gowda completing the top-10, the latter making a first appearance in an official GB3 test.
Each of the top-10 drivers recorded their best times in the final session of the day, with testing set to resume at Silverstone tomorrow.
GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Silverstone Monday testing combined result:
1. Freddie Slater, Hillspeed, 1m51.753s
2. Patrick Heuzenroder, Xcel Motorsport, +0.553s
3. Gianmarco Pradel, Rodin Motorsport, +0.618s
4. Deagen Fairclough, Hitech, +0.622s
5. Reza Seewooruthun, Argenti Motorsport, +0.719s
6. Alex Ninovic, Rodin Motorsport, +0.807s
7. Nikita Johnson, Hitech, +1.063s
8. Abbi Pulling, Rodin Motorsport, +1.190s
9. Will Macintyre, Elite Motorsport, +1.261s
10. Dion Gowda, Xcel Motorsport, +1.385s
11. James Hedley, JHR Developments, +1.520s
12. Noah Lisle, JHR Developments,+1.525s
13. Finn Harrison, Hillspeed, +1.562s
14. Lucas Fluxa, Argenti with Prema, +1.706s
15. Jack Sherwood, Xcel Motorsport, +1.795s
16. Kai Daryanani, JHR Developments, +1.807s
17. Rashid Al Dhaheri, Chris Dittmann Racing, +2.033s
18. Mika Abrahams, Fortec Motorsport, +2.042s
19. Flynn Jackes, Elite Motorsport, +2.198s
20. Stefan Bostandjiev, Fortec Motorsports, +2.268s
21. James Higgins, Chris Dittmann Racing, +2.822s
22. Bianca Bustamante, Elite Motorsport, +3.265s
23. Hugo Schwarze, VRD Racing, +3.307s