Autosport (UK)

Sharp masters the conditions to come within reach of GB3 crown

Louis Sharp produced a near-perfect weekend at Donington Park to give himself clear daylight in the GB3 title race heading into the deciding round at Brands Hatch later this month.

The Rodin Motorsport driver mastered changeable conditions across the two days to record his third and fourth victories of the campaign and extend his points advantage over his main championsh­ip rivals. The foundation­s of his double triumph were built in a damp qualifying, where the British-born New Zealander edged Tymek Kucharczyk, who came into the weekend third in the standings, to take pole for both races one and two.

With the circuit having mostly dried out for the opener, Sharp led from lights to flag after building an early 1.5-second advantage. Kucharczyk halved that gap in the closing stages but got sideways on a wet kerb into

Old Hairpin on the final lap and slid through the gravel, crucially giving away points by dropping to fourth.

The Pole’s Hitech GP team-mate Gerrard Xie was promoted to second and JHR Developmen­ts’ John Bennett kept his championsh­ip hopes alive with third. Noah Ping and Freddie Slater – the Italian Formula 4 dominator making his GB3 debut for Rodin – both challenged the recovering Kucharczyk before the finish but had to settle for fifth and sixth, ahead of Hitech’s Will Macintyre.

Wet tyres were required for

Sunday’s sequel, where Sharp again led throughout on a drying circuit to finish over two seconds clear of Kucharczyk. Behind them, Slater initially scored his first GB3 podium, having made his way past Xie early on, but was handed a one-place penalty afterwards for forcing Ping onto the grass at the start. The VRD by Arden driver was promoted a position as Rodin’s Arthur Rogeon and Xie completed the top six, the latter having also been relegated two places due to a track-limits penalty.

Having lost out in an early squabble with Ping and Rogeon at the Melbourne Hairpin, Bennett finished down in seventh, ahead of the improving

Colin Queen, and slipped to third in the standings behind Kucharczyk.

Rogeon completed a Donington clean sweep for Rodin in race three by taking his third reversed-grid win of the season. The Frenchman was never headed, resisting early pressure from Mckenzy Cresswell before edging clear. Queen held off a fast-starting Macintyre on lap one and maintained third on the road from there, but he was another to lose a maiden podium finish as a 5s track-limits penalty demoted the Fortec driver to eighth.

Bennett followed Macintyre home to take fourth and reclaim second in the standings, while Sharp climbed from 12th to sixth behind Slater but, much to his frustratio­n, could not find a way by his new team-mate.

Kucharczyk shadowed Sharp in seventh, losing further ground to his two main rivals in the championsh­ip. Four drivers remain mathematic­ally in contention for the crown heading to the deciding round, with Sharp holding a 33-point buffer to Bennett, Kucharczyk three points further behind and Macintyre still has an outside chance.