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The 2021 GB3 Championship visits Donington Park this weekend (16/17 October), with the Leicestershire circuit hosting what is still mathematically a title race going into the final meeting of the season.

The series supports the Intelligent Money British GT Championship, which has several titles of its own still up for grabs this weekend.

TCF takes a look at the stories going into the season finale, and what they mean for next season.

What happened last time at Donington?

Wins in Race 1 & 2 for O’Sullivan, Mikkel Grundtvig took only win of the season so far for Fortec Motorsport in Race 3.

GB3’s first visit to Donington this season in July, when the series was still called British F3, brought two wins for Champion-elect Zak O’Sullivan after the Carlin man took pole for Race 1 and 2, putting him last for Race 3 which brought retirement after a clash with then-title rival Reece Ushijima in Sector 3.

Otmar Szafnauer felt Lance Stroll drove ‘superbly’ during Sunday’s tricky Turkish Grand Prix, with the Canadian securing two points for the Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team despite a slow pit stop costing him valuable time.

However, Sebastian Vettel’s chance of scoring points was ended when a gamble to switch to medium tyres backfired, with the German dropping like a stone on his out lap.  On his lap out of the pits, he twice went off the track and was forced to crawl back to the pit lane for fresh intermediate tyres.  With no tyre temperature he even suffered a half spin entering the pits, and he was restricted to running at the back of the field for the rest of the day.

Szafnauer, the CEO and Team Principal at Aston Martin, says Vettel’s gamble did not pay off, which sometimes happens when conditions are as changeable as they were in Turkey, but at least the team came away with points from the weekend.

“Lance drove superbly in incredibly tricky conditions, and, despite a slow pit stop, thereby scored two valuable world championship points as a result of his excellent ninth-place finish,” said Szafnauer.  

“Sebastian also started well and was running in a solid top-10 position for the first half of the race, but he then took a gamble on a change to dry tyres [Mediums] which did not work out – he had no grip at all. The very next lap he consequently had to come back in for new Inters, but by that time his race had been compromised too severely for a points-scoring finish to be a possibility.

Lance Stroll was happy to come away from the Turkish Grand Prix with a ninth place finish, with the Canadian feeling he got everything he could out of his AMR21 on Sunday afternoon.

The Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team driver was a points contender throughout the day at Intercity Istanbul Park, with Stroll admitting it was a challenging day due to the conditions, with the track drying out in places but never getting dry enough for dry weather tyres.

Despite losing some time during his pit stop, Stroll does not feel that cost him any positions, and he can now go to the United States Grand Prix with confidence after two top ten results in three races.

“I am happy with today’s result and I think we got everything out of the car, so it is a job well done by the team,” said Stroll.  “It was tricky out there because the track was so slippery.

“There was also the challenge of the circuit drying in some places, which was causing graining of the tyres, and the question mark about a switch to slicks was always there. All things considered, ninth was the maximum we could achieve today.

Franz Tost was happy that the decision to pit Pierre Gasly when they did enabled the Frenchman to finish the Turkish Grand Prix in sixth, despite a five-second time penalty for an opening lap, first corner collision with Fernando Alonso.

The Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda team saw Gasly finish inside the points for the first time since the Dutch Grand Prix, while team-mate Yuki Tsunoda ended down in fourteenth after a spin cost him a place inside the top ten.

Tost, the Team Principal at AlphaTauri, felt the team had a successful weekend at Intercity Istanbul Park despite the difficult conditions, and to see Gasly secure another good haul of points despite his penalty was pleasing.

“We have had quite a successful weekend here in Turkey,” said Tost.  “Yesterday, we finished Qualifying with both cars in the top 10, so Pierre started today’s race in fourth, after Hamilton’s penalty, and Yuki in ninth position.

“Unfortunately, Pierre had a collision with Alonso at Turn 1, and this resulted in a five second penalty for him, which he had to serve at the first pitstop. However, he managed to keep his sixth position, as [Lando] Norris was seven seconds behind him.

Andreas Seidl Team Principal of the Mclaren F1 Team, believes that Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo did everything they could at the wet Turkish Grand Prix, with Norris finishing seventh and Ricciardo thirteenth.

Sunday’s grand prix summed up what was a difficult weekend for Mclaren, the team saw Norris’s chances of finishing third in the driver’s standings take a turn for the worse, after third placed Valtteri Bottas won the race. The team also saw the gap shrink between themselves and Scuderia Ferrari in the constructor’s standings after the Scuderia had a strong race in what were tough conditions for all.

Norris did well to keep himself in the points whereas Ricciardo who started last after taking an engine penalty, struggled to gain any positions due to the challenge of keeping the Intermediate tyres in a good operating window. In the end it could have been a worse outcome for Mclaren, with Seidl highlighting that there was nothing more the team could do.

“We leave Istanbul with six more points in our Constructors’ Championship battle, after finishing P7 and P13. We achieved everything that was on the table for us today. With the pace we had all weekend and the picture unfortunately also not changing today in wet conditions, there wasn’t more we could do together with Lando and Daniel. “

Thanks to everyone here at the track, back home in the factory, our drivers and our colleagues at Mercedes HPP. Everyone worked very hard this weekend. On to the next one.”

It was a disappointing Turkish Grand Prix for the Mclaren F1 Team at the Intercity Istanbul Park Circuit, with Lando Norris being the sole Mclaren in the points after finishing seventh, with team-mate Daniel Ricciardo crossing the line in thirteenth.

Norris saw his chances of finishing third in the driver’s standings take a massive nose-dive, after Valtteri Bottas won the grand prix to open up his gap to Norris in third. To make matters worse for the team, Charles Leclerc finished fourth with Carlos Sainz Jr also finishing in the points, shrinking the gap between Mclaren and Scuderia Ferrari in the constructors.

Norris believes he did everything he could in the tricky conditions, where looking after the Intermediate tyres was a challenge for everyone.

“A very long and tough race today mainly because of the conditions. It was very difficult to keep the Inters in a good window during the race, but I think we achieved everything we could in the end, so I have to be happy with P7. It was damage limitation for us at this track, but we came away with the best result that we could. So, happy with that and we just need to make more improvements for the next one. It’s important we recover and keep pushing next time out!” 

“We had probably four good laps” – Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo had a difficult grand prix, the Australian who started last due to an engine penalty, struggled to make any ground during the race. The Honey Badger struggled with front grip, resulting in an early pit-stop for the Mclaren driver.

When Bill McAnally began racing in NASCAR’s local series in the 1990s, his operation used Chevrolets, and since 2008, Bill McAnally Racing has raced under Toyota power. For 2022, McAnally will rejoin the Bowtie. On Wednesday, McAnally announced BMR and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series programme McAnally-Hilgemann Racing will switch back to Chevrolet beginning in 2022 as part of a technical alliance with GMS Racing.

BMR began racing in what is now the ARCA Menards Series West in 1992 and blossomed into the premier team in the series. Since 2010, BMR drivers have won the ARCA West championship in all but four years, including five of the last six and the last two titles with Derek Kraus and Jesse Love. The team also operates a driver development academy in partnership with NASCAR.

Kraus currently pilots the #19 Tundra for MHR, where he sits thirteenth in points in his and the team’s second year of competition. MHR is operated by McAnally in conjunction with Bill Hilgemann. Colby Howard will join the team for the 2022 season.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to work with a team the caliber of GMS Racing as we prepare to partner with Chevrolet next season,” McAnally stated. “We’re anxious to move ahead and we’re confident that our alliance with GMS will be beneficial to both teams.”

For GMS, the alliance gives them a new friend as the team prepares for their largest season yet. In addition to fielding multiple full-time trucks as usual, GMS is also débuting a full-time Cup Series team with Ty Dillon.

Pierre Gasly reckoned finishing sixth in the Turkish Grand Prix – and less than ten seconds away from the podium places – was a good effort, particularly after taking a five-second time penalty for colliding with Fernando Alonso at turn one on lap one.

The Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda Driver was deemed to have been at fault for the incident that saw Alonso spin around and lose significant ground on the opening lap, although he felt over the radio that he had been unable to avoid the contact as Sergio Pérez was inside him coming to the turn.

Nevertheless, Gasly drove superbly throughout the race and was able to take his penalty without losing a position and was closing down the cars in front of him in the closing laps.

“I’m really happy to be back finishing in the top six, I think this is probably one of our best performances this season, particularly in these difficult conditions,” said Gasly.  “To be finishing just 10 seconds from the podium, after a five second penalty, is really good for us.

“The Turn 1 incident was a bit unfortunate, I was sandwiched between Sergio and Fernando, we touched a little bit but it was just enough to spin Alonso, so I want to say sorry to him.

The second and final day of the seventeen NASCAR Cup Series teams testing the Next Gen car at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval took place on Tuesday.

Twenty-one cars piloted by twenty-three drivers (a one-person increase from Monday) took to the track. The shared #19 Joe Gibbs Racing car of Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. set the fastest lap time of 1:18.573, though the number is greatly skewed as the car had missed a chicane. Hamlin eventually also took over the 23XI Racing machine from Bubba Wallace, which he co-owns, after his regular #11 car experienced issues that prevented him from turning laps in time.

Much of the driver roster remained the same with the exception of Team Hezeberg, who had Loris Hezemans share the #27 with Jacques Villeneuve. Villeneuve, the 1997 Formula One World Champion and a current NASCAR Whelen Euro Series driver like Hezemans, last raced in the Cup Series at Sonoma in 2013; coincidentally, his Cup début in 2007 came in a #27 car for Bill Davis. With his unsurprisingly impressive road racing background in open-wheel cars and road ringer status in NASCAR in the early 2010s, Villeneuve helped record the twelfth-best time. It was not all smooth sailing for the Canadian as he got loose re-entering the oval portion of the track, but was able to keep the car off the wall.

Another new team on the grid for 2022 is GMS Racing, whose Ty Dillon posted the slowest time of the twenty-one cars but set a faster pace than on Monday (1:24.011 on Tuesday versus 1:24.143 the day prior).

“It was a lot of fun getting to drive the new Camaro,” said Dillon. “These things are very fast and you can be really aggressive driving them. We got a lot of information and learned a lot about this new car that we have to fix system-wise, so we’re working really hard on that. There’s going to be a lot of learning up until next year, but boy, am I excited to drive these things full time.”

Fortec Motorsport will run a three-car line-up for the final round of the GB3 Championship at Donington Park this weekend (16/17 October), with F4 British Championship podium-finisher Eduardo Coseteng stepping in.

With Roberto Faria and Mikkel Grundtvig, the team has taken four wins and a further 14 podiums from the 21 races held so far this season, including a win for Grundtvig in the Championship’s first visit to Donington in July.

Coseteng has taken two Rookie class wins this season with Phinsys by Argenti Motorsport, stepping onto the overall podium for the first time in Race 3 at Donington last time out.

Fortec look likely to finish third in the Teams’ Championship, but still have everything to play for, with a 57-point gap to Hitech GP ahead, and a 46-point advantage over series debutants Arden Motorsport in fourth place.

“I want to start by saying a massive thank you to Fortec Motorsport, as well as my sponsors Petron and Autoplus for this amazing opportunity,” the Filipino driver said.

Elite Motorsport have announced that 2019 Ginetta Junior champion, and F4 British Championship race-winner James Hedley will make his GB3 Championship debut at Donington Park this weekend (16/17 October).

The BRDC Rising Star will join BRDC SuperStar, and Championship leader, Zak O’Sullivan on the grid when pre-event testing gets underway on Thursday 14 October.

Like O’Sullivan, Hedley has won races in British F4 with Carlin, the team which took the GB3 Champion-elect to second place in the 2020 standings.

The pair raced each other in the category last season, with Hedley taking four wins to O’Sullivan’s nine, the 18-year-old on course for a second consecutive fifth-place finish in the standings with one meeting at Brands Hatch remaining.

Hedley ran out of the JHR Developments stable in 2020, but moved to Carlin for this season.

The most comprehensive test of the NASCAR Cup Series‘ Next Gen car to date began on Monday as part of a two-day session at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval. Held a day after the Cup race, twenty-two drivers in twenty-one cars from seventeen teams took to the track in their seventh-generation cars set to debut in 2022.

Prior tests have usually featured just one or two cars, with the largest prior run being an eight-driver test at Daytona in September. The Roval also hosted the first multi-driver test in November with Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr.; while the latter returned for the two-day session, Busch’s Chip Gansssi Racing team-mate Ross Chastain took over the CGR slot. Such a decision is reasonable as CGR is being sold to Trackhouse Racing Team in 2022 (who was present with Daniel Suárez), whom Chastain will join, while Busch heads to 23XI Racing who had Bubba Wallace turning laps. Also accounting for 2022 driver changes was Wood Brothers Racing as Austin Cindric was in the #21; while Cindric will drive Team Penske‘s #2 next year, he was initially scheduled to be in the #21 as a replacement for impending free agent Matt DiBenedetto. Brad Keselowski, the current Penske #2 driver who is set to depart the organisation after 2021, did not take part while fellow allies Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney did.

Chase Briscoe set the fastest lap time of 1:20.219 at 104.115 mph. By comparison, William Byron won the pole at the 2019 Roval race (the most recent edition to feature qualifying) at 1:20.932 and 103.198 mph (both would have been the second-fastest among the Next Gen testers). Byron, who tested the Next Gen at Daytona and in a single-car session at Fontana in March 2020, did not take part as Hendrick Motorsports placed Sunday winner Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, the latter being the Roval winner for the two years prior, in one car.

Joey Hand, a Ford factory driver and sports car veteran who made his NASCAR début on Sunday, piloted the Rick Ware Racing #51. The Next Gen car has drawn comparisons to sports and touring cars, especially for its improved road course performance compared to its predecessors and similar elements to such vehicles. It is thus unsurprising that A.J. Allmendinger found himself adjusting nicely to the car as the three-time and newly crowned Xfinity Series Roval winner set the fourth-best time.

Two new teams for the 2022 season also made their track “débuts” as Team Hezeberg fielded the #27 for Whelen Euro Series star Loris Hezemans and GMS Racing for Ty Dillon. Hezemans is savvy with road courses as the Euro Series currently races exclusively on them, while Dillon won a stage at the Roval in 2020. Former F1 champion-turned-Euro Series regular Jacques Villeneuve will take over the Hezeberg #27 for the second day of testing.

Mattia Binotto says the performance levels shown by Scuderia Ferrari during Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix confirmed the team have made progress with their power unit.

Charles Leclerc finished fourth after a gamble to stay out on his original intermediate tyres did not pay off, while Carlos Sainz Jr. climbed from nineteenth on the grid to finish eighth, which could have been even better but for a slow pit stop.

Binotto, the Team Principal at Ferrari, admits that fourth and eighth does represent a good afternoon for the Maranello-based team, but the pace that both Leclerc and Sainz showed they had during the afternoon in Turkey means they cannot be completely satisfied with the result.

“This was a very intense race and it confirmed the good signs that had already emerged in very different dry track conditions on Friday,” said Binotto.  “Istanbul is a very demanding track and we showed we were competitive, at least on this track and that’s why we can’t be entirely satisfied with the 16 points we picked up today.

“Charles had a great weekend, both in qualifying and the race. Together we tried to bring home an even better result and it’s a shame that in the end he didn’t make it to the podium, as that would have been well deserved.

Charles Leclerc made a valiant attempt at claiming a second podium finish of the season in Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix, but the Scuderia Ferrari driver came up just short in fourth position.

Starting from third position but with a low downforce set-up that would have benefitted him had it been dry, Leclerc stayed out on track for a long time on his original set of intermediate tyres and took over the lead of the race.

However, those who had pitted ahead of him – Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez – all showed that fresh intermediates were the best option and were able to catch the Monegasque racer, and he ended up having to pit to avoid falling further down the order.

Leclerc admitted it was a shame to miss out on the top three at Intercity Istanbul Park, but he was pleased with the performance of his SF21 throughout the weekend.

“Overall, it was a positive race,” said Leclerc.  “We were very competitive, especially in the first stint and the car felt good. We went long on the first set of Inters and once the rest of the field had stopped for the new set, we found ourselves to be quite a bit faster on the used ones.

Red Bull Racing achieved a brillant double podium at the wet Turkish Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen regaining the championship lead in second and Sergio Pérez in third at the Intercity Istanbul Park Circuit.

It was an excellent Sunday for Red Bull at a track where the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team had been strongest all weekend. Verstappen excellently converted his second place start into a second place finish, and regain the Drivers’ Championship lead by a slim six points from Lewis Hamilton. The Dutchman had an uneventful race unlike his team-mate.

Pérez made a strong start from sixth and was fourth by the second corner, from then on he spent a good number of laps unchallenged from behind. This all changed when the recovering Hamilton caught up with the Mexican after starting eleventh, the pair had a great fight from Turn 12 to Turn 2, with the Mexican doing well to come out on top.

In the second stint Pérez got the better of Charles Leclerc and moved up to his finishing position of third, Pérez pitted before Leclerc and was able to get his Intermediate tyres into a better window before the Scuderia Ferrari driver.

Team Principal Christian Horner is very happy with the double podium and is especially pleased that Pérez took the fight to Hamilton.