GB3 Silverstone Recap
- therookiereporters
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
The 23-26 April marked the official start of the 2026 GB3 Season with the season opener at Silverstone, the home of British Motorsport.
For GB3, there are DRS detection and activation zones across the 5.891km circuit. The first detection point comes just after Turn 2 with the activation zone being located down the Hangar Straight. The second DRS detection is just after Turn 13 - Village with the activation zone being located down the Wellington Straight. This can be enabled during qualifying but during the race is unable to be activated during the first lap. DRS can be deactivated by race control at its discretion in the case of yellow flags, safety cars and any other danger during the race. During all races, if a driver is within a second of the car in front at either of the designated detection points, the DRS system will be enabled throughout the next zone.
Practice Sessions
Day 1
The first day of practice sessions at Silverstone for the GB3 Championship took place Thursday 23rd April and saw the drivers racing on a sunny and dry track. The first of the three sessions of this day saw Deagan Fairclough #6 leading the rest of the drivers, setting a time of 1:50:801. Behind Fairclough was Campbell-Pilling #8, who was only +0.172s behind, followed by Pulling #3 (+0.231s), Molnár #2 (+0.307s). Leon Wilson #27 wrapped up the top five for this session with a gap of +0.364s to Fairclough. This session saw two of the Rodin Motorsport drivers finish in the top 5.
The second session saw Abbi Pulling #3 take the lead with a 1:51.722. Behind her was Fairclough #6 (+0.124s). Maxim Rehm #1 followed, making it his first time in the top 5 so far during this race week (+0.196s), Molnár #2 finished in the same place yet again (+0.245s) and it was Lucas Fluxá #7 who finished off the top five for the second session (+0.466s). This session showed another strong performance for Rodin Motorsport, who have the potential to lead the championship after this weekend.
The last session on Thursday saw Deagan Fairclough #6 in the lead again with a 1:50.447. Behind Fairclough was Nikita Bedrin #20 (+0.475s), who finished in the top 5 for the first time so far at Silverstone this week. Rehm #1 was in third (+0.512s), followed by Pulling #3 (+0.513s) and it was Martin Molnár #2 who finished off the top five for the second session (+0.555s). This session showed another strong performance for Rodin Motorsport, who had all three of their drivers finish in the top 5 again.
The combined classification for the practice sessions on Day 1 saw Deagan Fairclough #6 (Hitech), Nikita Bedrin #20 (VRD Racing), Rowan Campbell-Pilling #8 (Xcel Motorsport), Maxim Rehm #1 (Rodin Motorsport) and Abbi Pulling #3 (Rodin Motorsport) in the top five.
Day 2
Friday 24th April saw another two practice sessions take place for the GB3 Championship, where the first of which started at 11:00 and got red flagged two minutes but was resumed at 11:04. Deagan Fairclough #6 took the lead of this session with a 1:50.507. Behind him was Campbell-Pilling #8 (+0.637s), followed by Molnár #2 (+0.744s), Dante Vinci #10 (+0.874s). It was Abbi Pulling #3 who finished off the top five for this session after being (+0.875s) behind Fairclough. In total, there were 3 red flags throughout this session.
The final practice session before qualifying on Saturday saw Nikita Bedrin #20 take first in the classification with a time of 1:49.577. Behind him was Martin Molnár #2 (+0.264s) followed by Deagan Fairclough #6 (+0.342s), Maxim Rehm #1 (+0.520s) and Abbi Pulling #3 (+0.705s).
Qualifying 1
For this weekend, there are 23 drivers on the GB3 grid. Qualifying 1 forms the grid for the first race. This qualifying session saw Nikita Bedrin #20 for VRD Racing took pole with a lap time of 1:50.123. Martin Molnár #2 (+0.035s) and Maxim Rehm #1 (+0.215s) for Rodin Motorsport completed the top 3 for the first qualifying session.
Jon Jackson and Piers Prior in the MSV livestream spoke to Abbi Pulling prior to the qualifying sessions, saying “it’s great to have her back in GB3 this season, and that they assume the championship is the goal.”
Pulling responded, “Of course, yeah, my sights are on that. Preseason testing has been really good, Rodin, of course, has a really great car and has given me everything I need, it’s just me putting it together and finding my feet and getting the season underway.”
Jackson and Prior also spoke to Martin Molnár after this session, asking, “Why GB3, tell us about your decision to join us this season.”
Molnár responded, “I chose GB3 because it looked very competitive last year, great racing and great cars, so there are many reasons I chose this championship. I know a few tracks already from British F4, so it is a new challenge, new cars, stronger cars. I’m really enjoying it so far, a different team for this year as well, racing for Rodin is really good.”
Qualifying 2
The second qualifying session sets the grid for the second race. This qualifying session saw Nikita Bedrin #20 for VRD Racing take pole with a lap time of 1:49.402. Deagan Fairclough #6 (+0.232s) and Maxim Rehm #1 (+0.270s) for Hitech and Rodin Motorsport completed the top 3 for the second qualifying session.
Prior spoke to the driver who took pole in both qualifying sessions - Nikita Bedrin for VRD Racing and said: “Nikita, a dream start to your GB3 career here at Silverstone, double pole position, based on testing - that’s a bit unexpected.”
Bedrin responded, “Honestly, we found a big, big step this week. I’m really happy with the team, they work really hard because as soon as we see an issue, they always fix it straight away.”
Race 1
The first GB3 race of the 2026 season saw a better start from Molnár, who took the lead at the beginning of the race. A lot of overtakes and racing action took place towards the front of the pack between Faiclough, Campbell-Pilling and Pulling. With 21 minutes left of the race, there was contact between the #4 car of Nakamura and #7 - Lucas Fluxá. With 17 minutes left of the race, the Elite Motorsport car of Flynn Jackes started to slow on the track, making him unable to continue at racing pace. With 8 minutes left of the race, Dante Vinci’s car came to a halt, which led to a safety car being deployed. Following this, Abbi Pulling drove into the pits and retired the car. The first race finished with a podium of Nikita Bedrin #20 for VRD Racing and, Martin Molnár #2 and Maxim Rehm # 1 for Rodin Motorsport.
Race 2
Martin Molnár wasn’t able to get the car fired up in the assembly area and the mechanics weren’t able to get the car started - a setback he will have to try and deal with in the third race. Deagan Fairclough had a great race start, managing to take the lead from Bedrin before Nikita Bedrin managed to retake the race lead. With 21 minutes to go, the #11 car of Bouzenelos came to a halt on the track, meaning the safety car had to come out. The safety car came in with minutes to go and the racing resumed under a green flag. With 9 minutes to go the #6 car of Deagan Fairclough started to slow on the Hangar Straight, making him the second retirement of the race. With only a few seconds to go, the car of Patricio Gonzalez went on top of Abbi Pulling, forcing her to retire from this race - her second retirement this weekend. The second race finished with a podium of Nikita Bedrin #20 for VRD Racing, Maxim Rehm #1 for Rodin Motorsport and Lucas Fluxá #7 for Xcel Motorsport.
Jackson spoke to race winner Bedrin saying, “Two races started, two races won, how was that one for you?”
Bedrin responded “This one was a bit more tricky, much better start than Race 1, still need to improve a little bit but apart from that I think the pace is always there, we had a great battle in the first lap, so really happy with that and then controlled it, a few safety cars of course, the last restart was not ideal but I wanted to try something different instead of doing the same thing all the time. There was a good pace and everything was good.”
Race 3
This race saw Nakamura constantly attempting to overtake and set a fastest lap towards the beginning of the race whilst overtaking. With 14 minutes to go, the #11 car of Bouzenelos came to a halt, making him the first retirement of the race and led to the safety car being deployed. Like Race 2, Deagan Fairclough #6 slowed down on the circuit again and came to a stop. The safety car restart occurred with 4 minutes to go and saw Abbi Pulling making a great overtake to get her into the top 10. The third race finished with a podium of #4 Jin Nakamura for Hitech, #19 Kyuho Lee for Elite Motorsport and #18 of Flynn Jackes for Elite Motorsport.
After this race weekend, the standings were as follows
1 | 20 | Nikita Bedrin - VRD Racing | 82 |
2 | 1 | Maxim Rehm - Rodin Motorsport | 63 |
3 | 4 | Jin Nakamura - Hitech | 57 |
4 | 19 | Kyuho Lee - Elite Motorsport | 50 |
5 | 7 | Lucas Fluxá - Xcel Motorsport | 47 |
1 | VRD Racing | 124 |
2 | Rodin Motorsport | 99 |
3 | Xcel Motosport | 92 |
Article written by Ria Wiktor ©️ Ria Wiktor 2026
