Bearman stars as British F3 becomes GB3
SNETTERTON MSVR
7-8 AUGUST
Oliver Bearman showed why he is dominating two of Europe’s junior singleseater series when he made his mark at Snetterton in the first event since the mid-season rebranding of BRDC British
F3 as the GB3 Championship.
The Briton, who leads the German and Italian Formula 4 championships, seamlessly returned to the category for the first time since the opening Brands Hatch round, and took a commanding victory in the first race after comfortably qualifying on pole in a rain-affected session.
Tom Lebbon failed to capitalise on his front-row start, suffering a right-rear puncture in contact from Elite Motorsport team-mate Javier Sagrera into the Wilson hairpin. Brazilian Roberto Faria had already moved into second place and secured Fortec Motorsport a 1-2, with Roman Bilinski completing the podium in his Arden machine after an impressive rise from ninth.
The unusual qualifying result had left championship protagonists Zak O’sullivan and Reece Ushijima down the pecking order, and the pair collided for the second time this season. Ushijima was deemed at fault for the lap-two collision, in which he made contact with O’sullivan’s left-rear into Wilson, and was handed a five-place grid penalty for the second race. Carlin driver O’sullivan pitted to have a flat tyre replaced, while Ushijima was out with damaged suspension.
Bearman was set to double up in race two after getting the jump on poleman Sebastian Alvarez off the line, but was cruelly denied another victory when a split radiator at the end of the opening lap eventually forced him into retirement. This allowed Alvarez to take his maiden win in the series, the Hitech GP driver sustaining race-long pressure from O’sullivan and Bilinski.
After starring at the championship’s Spa visit, where he took his first win in the series, Bilinski continued his impressive form and finished on the top step again in the full reversed-grid third race. Fourth at the start, he was second by the end of the opening lap, before making a move on Mikkel Grundtvig on the exit of Riches.
The Fortec driver became something of a cork in the bottle for the chasing pack as first Sagrera and then O’sullivan both had turns probing the Dane’s defences, but it was Bearman who broke through first, after climbing from 11th on the grid.
O’sullivan then pulled off a sensational pass around the outside of Sagrera into Riches for fourth before displacing Grundtvig with a similar move at Brundle a lap later. Third then turned into second when, with rain falling, Bearman went off at Riches on the penultimate lap. Faria was promoted to third and Alvarez fourth.
O’sullivan now heads Carlin team-mate Christian Mansell by 99 points with three events remaining.
The middle Ginetta GT5 Challenge contest proved to be the most compelling track action all weekend, with none of the races requiring the use of a safety car despite some challenging conditions.
John Bennett disposed of leader Will Rochford on lap six of 10 at Wilson, but the delay to both allowed table-topper
Josh Steed the chance to move into second around the outside at Turn 3.
Steed’s good work was negated just a lap
later, when he dropped to fifth after running wide at Riches as rain arrived, with race-one winner Bennett also sliding wide at Wilson and promoting Rochford back into the lead.
The recovering Steed and Will Aspin both then found a way past, before Steed was forced wide at Agostini on the penultimate lap after contact. Aspin won on the road, but was demoted to second behind Steed for his actions, while Bennett was third after helping Rochford wide on the final lap.
It was Bennett’s turn to suffer a finallap mishap in race three, spinning at Riches in appalling conditions after shadowing Steed throughout. Mikey Doble and Aspin completed the rostrum.
Both Connor Grady and Will Orton, whose cars are run by Alastair Rushforth Motorsport, were able to race despite a fire in the team’s awnings that caused a halt to Saturday’s proceedings (see News). Their best result was an eighth for Grady.
After tasting outright victory in the Ginetta GT Academy for the first time at the previous Donington Park round, Angus Whiteside was in sensational form to claim a hat-trick of wins in Norfolk, his smallest winning margin being 3.6s in race one.
Hardest hit by the delay to Saturday’s proceedings was the Elise Trophy, with the championship’s two 20-minute races trimmed down to just one, which was headed by Jason Mcinulty.