Double pole for Frederick; Kush Maini to start P9: British F3
Donington, 24 October 2020: Carlin’s Kaylen Frederick secured a double pole position in qualifying on the Donington Park National circuit this morning (Saturday), before the opening race of the weekend was rescheduled to Sunday morning due to weather conditions.
Indian racing driver Kush Maini of Hitech team was among the 9 of the 16 drivers who laps were cancelled for `exceeding track limits’ and as a result will start on P9.
Qualifying
Frederick secured his fifth and sixth pole positions of the season during a frantic 20-minute session held this morning. In one of the closest sessions seen in BRDC British F3 history, Frederick’s race one pole margin of 0.145 seconds was comparatively large, considering that 0.156 seconds covered the drivers from second to 10th, with just over half a second separating the top-15.
Hillspeed duo Oliver Clarke and Sasakorn Chaimongkol claimed second and third for the race one and three grids on a weekend where the team celebrates their 50th anniversary, while title challenger Ulysse De Pauw secured fourth place for both contests as well.
Fortec’s Roberto Faria demonstrated his progress in British F3 by taking sixth on the grid for race one in just his third weekend. Championship leader Kush Maini was only ninth for Hitech after having several laps deleted for track limits, while title contender Louis Foster was eighth fastest.
Race one rescheduled to Sunday morning
Qualifying took place in cool but dry conditions, but persistent heavy rain in the hour before the scheduled race start meant that sessions for championships running before BRDC British F3 on the timetable were red flagged. With other championships racing at Donington Park this weekend only competing today (Saturday), and some scheduled to decide their championships this afternoon, in the interests of fairness and safety, it was agreed that British F3 race one would move to Sunday morning, rather than waiting for a potential window in the weather this afternoon.
Sessions for the other championships competing this afternoon were all heavily affected by the weather also, with multiple red flags or lengthy safety car periods. The weather forecast for Sunday is significantly better than today.
A revised Sunday timetable has been issued by event organisers MSVR, with the new race times for BRDC British F3 shown below.
09.05 – Race one
12.05 – Race two
14.55 – Race three
Pole position driver Kaylen Frederick said: “In practice we were looking quick in dry and wet conditions, so I was happy for it to go either way. It was pretty tricky out there, the wind was moving around a lot which made it really tricky to put together a bunch of quick laps because the references were always changing.
“But I think I did a great job of adjusting what I needed to and I put all my quick sectors together and did a bunch of laps that were pretty much good enough for pole. I had an amazing car, I’ve had one for the whole weekend so far. We put it all together and it’s produced a great result.”
BRDC British F3 Championship, Donington Park National circuit, Qualifying top-six:
1. Kaylen Frederick, Carlin, 1m03.066s
2. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed, +0.145s
3. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +0.163s
4. Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, +0.171s
5. Roberto Faria, Fortec Motorsports, +0.204s
6. Nazim Azman, Carlin, +0.211s
Click here for full result.
Qualifying second fastest times (race three grid):
1. Kaylen Frederick, Carlin, 1m03.075s
2. Oliver Clarke, Hillspeed, +0.143s
3. Sasakorn Chaimongkol, Hillspeed, +0.199s
4. Ulysse De Pauw, Douglas Motorsport, +0.209s
5. Reece Ushijima, Hitech GP, +0.246s
6. Louis Foster, Double R Racing, +0.273s
Click here for full result.
