After being one of the quickest in testing leading up to latest GB3 Championship round at the Hungaroring in Hungary, Kiwi driver Louis Sharp is somewhat baffled by lack of speed in both qualifying sessions.
“A tough quali session,” commented Sharp. “We’re starting P9 for Race 1 and P5 for Race 2. It’s time to understand where we lost speed overnight and find those missing tenths.”
Despite his best efforts he finished seventh in the opening race and has slipped to third overall on the points table.
Gerrard Xie enjoyed his best day in the GB3 Championship so far, as he claimed his first two pole positions in qualifying and then his second victory in the series with a superb drive in the championship’s first ever race at the Hungaroring.
The Chinese driver left it late in qualifying to claim his first two poles, finding improvement when it mattered to top the closest qualifying session of the year so far. He then controlled the race to earn victory ahead of teammate Tymek Kucharczyk, who extended his championship lead.
Qualifying
Despite heavy rain in the morning, Saturday’s action was held on a dry track, and Xie earned pole position with his final lap of the session. His time of 1m39.629s was enough to put him just six thousandths of a second clear of fellow Hitech Pulse-Eight runner Kucharczyk, who had to settle for second having battled for pole throughout.
JHR’s John Bennett was third fastest ahead of the final Hitech machine of Will Macintyre, while James Hedley’s Rodin Motorsport debut produced fifth place on the grid, his best result of the year, 0.002s clear of Elite’s McKenzy Cresswell.
With the grid for race two based on each driver’s second fastest times, Xie took pole again, this time with a margin of 0.157s to Kucharczyk, with Macintyre and Cresswell next up, ahead of Rodin’s Louis Sharp and JHR’s Patrick Heuzenroeder, who enjoyed his best qualifying results so far.
Race one
Xie withstood pressure from Kucharczyk off the line, and just about held the lead at the first turn, despite the Polish driver’s attempts to go around the outside.
A lead of over a second after the first tour was soon whittled down as Kucharczyk made inroads into Xie’s advantage. But despite near constant pressure and the gap rarely going above three quarters of a second for the rest of the race, Xie held firm to take his second victory in GB3, while Hitech now have seven in succession in 2024.
Kucharczyk’s second place extended his championship lead over Macintyre, who finished fifth, to 19 points. Bennett completed the podium positions, almost three seconds behind the Hitech duo, and ahead of Hedley, with Cresswell completing the top-six.
GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, driver’s standings after race 10 of 24
1/ Tymek Kucharczyk, Hitech Pulse-Eight, 212pts
2/ Will Macintyre, Hitech Pulse-Eight, 193pts
3/ Louis Sharp, Rodin Motorsport, 185pts
4/ John Bennett, JHR Developments, 172pts
5/ Ugo Ugochukwu, Rodin Motorsport, 155pts
6/ McKenzy Cresswell, Elite Motorsport, 144pts
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