Unstoppable Ushijima stakes his claim for title
Reece Ushijima announced himself as a genuine BRDC British Formula 3 title contender with two almost faultless wins at Silverstone. Pre-season favourite Ayrton Simmons endured a trying weekend before salvaging some decent points with victory in the reversed-grid encounter, as championship leader Zak O’sullivan continued his strong form with a pair of podiums.
Hitech GP driver Ushijima twice converted pole position into a first-corner lead over O’sullivan – who started second and third respectively – and was never headed in either race despite the Carlin racer’s persistent pressure.
The action largely came behind the leading pair, who might have been challenged by Ushijima’s team-mate
Bart Horsten in the opening race if the Australian had cleared Frederick Lubin sooner. The second-row starters diced through the middle portion of the first lap before Horsten made the move stick at Village. Javier Sagrera and Roberto Faria quickly followed through before the unsettled Lubin went off at Becketts, requiring a pitstop to remove grass from his radiator ducts.
Multiple track-limits violations meant Horsten recorded only one representative lap time in qualifying, meaning he would start at the back in race two, so he ran a full set of new tyres to maximise his chances in the opener. He was the fastest man on track, but could only reduce his three-second deficit to 1s at the finish, with the order of the top five remaining static.
Lubin dropped from second to fifth at the start of Sunday morning’s sequel, but the Arden racer recovered by passing Christian Mansell around the outside at Copse, albeit off-track, which earned him a post-race time penalty. He then shadowed Fortec driver Faria as they closed down O’sullivan, who was suffering with graining.
Having struggled with persistent understeer all weekend (see news), Simmons managed no better than 10th in the opening two races. But from row two of race three’s reversed grid, he followed Chris Dittmann Racing team-mate Max Marzorati around polesitter Reema Juffali at Becketts. Simmons dived inside Marzorati at Brooklands on lap two, then made a perfect restart after a mid-race safety car to take his second win of the season. Alex Connor inherited second – his and Arden’s maiden podium in the championship – after a rear puncture from contact with Bryce Aron ended Marzorati’s race, while Faria completed a profitable weekend in third.
O’sullivan and Ushijima got embroiled in midfield scraps on their way to ninth and 10th respectively. Horsten, who impressed on his charge to sixth in race two, crashed out after clashing with Mikkel Grundtvig, for which he will serve a five-place grid penalty next time out at Donington Park.
As one of only a handful of returning drivers in 2021, Ushijima’s title prospects had gone under the radar, even after a strong weekend at Brands Hatch placed him behind only O’sullivan and part-timer Oliver Bearman in the standings. But the first-time winner has now closed to within six points of O’sullivan, the pair well clear of Faria in third.
“The first one’s the hardest so I’m glad to get it out the way,” he said. “I heard at the beginning of the season that no-one really counted me in it. If we just keep doing what we did this weekend then it should be all right.”
Honours were even between Theo
Edgerton and Jack Bartholomew in the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB. Bartholomew pipped championship leader Edgerton to pole position by just 0.008s but was powerless to stop the teenager squeezing by on the run to Copse. Edgerton built a lead of more than 2s and looked set for a comfortable win until hit with a 5s track-limits penalty with only two laps remaining, handing Bartholomew his second consecutive triumph.“you never want to win through a technicality but, at the same time, I had a DNF at Brands so I have to take all the points
I can,” said the victor.
A disappointed Edgerton turned the tables in race two, repeating his successful move off the line and taking advantage of the two new tyres he had saved to ease to victory by 3.4s. Ethan Hawkey was a lonely third in each race, while reigning Am champion Ambrogio Perfetti returned to form with a pair of class wins over
Ian Humphris, the second in fourth overall after Matt Armstrong’s optimistic lunge on Charles Clark at Becketts ended both their races.