O’Sullivan and Ushijima take GB3 poles at Donington

Zak O’Sullivan and Reece Ushijima took pole for Race 1 and Race 2 on Saturday as the GB3 Championship visited Donington Park for the second time this season.

The title was effectively secured by the time the circus rolled out of Oulton Park

Bryce Aron set the early pace ahead of James Hedley, but the pair were quickly shuffled back by the Chris Dittmann Racing pair of Alex Fores and Branden Oxley.

The third CDR entry of Ayrton Simmons then went quickest ahead of Reema Juffali (Douglas Motorsport), before Reece Ushijima and Hedley shared the top spot between them over about 15 seconds.

Fores and Oxley dropped down the order as others set their first representative laps, but quickly moved back up to 11th and 12th.

Zak O’Sullivan went fastest halfway through the session, taking the times into the 1:24s, just ahead of team-mate Christian Mansell, before Mansell’s countryman Bart Horsten followed his Hitech team-mate Ushijima in spending time at the top.

Javier Sagrera, Roman Bilinski and Tom Lebbon all moved up to shuffle Simmons down the order as the session moved towards a close.

Fortec Motorsport‘s Roberto Faria moved up to fifth, as O’Sullivan went several tenths quicker again and ushered the times towards the 1:23 mark.

Horsten improved again and slotted in just behind O’Sullivan, by just 0.003s, while Simmons improved again to move up to sixth.

Tommy Smith showed his hand and moved back up to 14th, and Ushijima went onto provisional pole as Horsten also improved to go second.

Mansell improved again to go fifth, with Sebastian Alvarez shooting up to shuffle the Australian down, before being joined by Bilinski and O’Sullivan.

Bryce Aron and Johnathan Browne both improved in the final minutes, with Browne and Hillspeed team-mate Flynn Jackes also moving up the order.

The red flags ended the session as Reema Juffali went off at the Esses with less than two minutes to go.

O’Sullivan took pole at the end of the session, ahead of the Hitech trio of Horsten, Ushijima and Alvarez.

Bilinski, Mansell and Faria will start fifth through seventh, with Simmons, Tom Lebbon and Branden Oxley rounding out the top ten.

Debutant James Hedley will start just outside the top ten, ahead of Aron, Browne and Sagrera.

Frederick Lubin starts 15th, ahead of Flynn Jackes and Eduardo Coseteng.

Alex Fores qualified 18th, ahead of Tommy Smith, with Reema Juffali and July’s Race 3 winner Mikkel Grundtvig rounding out the grid.

Reece Ushijima will start on pole for Race 2, ahead of Horsten and O’Sullivan.

2021 Donington Park Qualifying Results:

Pos.	No.	Name	Nat.	Team	Time/Gap
1	51	Zak O’Sullivan	GBR	Carlin	1:24.176
2	50	Bart Horsten	AUS	Hitech GP	+0.033s
3	13	Reece Ushijima	JPN	Hitech GP	+0.054s
4	12	Sebastian Alvarez	MEX	Hitech GP	+0.157s
5	4	Roman Bilinski	POL	Arden Motorsport	+0.204s
6	21	Christian Mansell	AUS	Carlin	+0.272s
7	7	Roberto Faria	BRA	Fortec Motorsport	+0.317s
8	18	Ayrton Simmons	GBR	Chris Dittmann Racing	+0.320s
9	34	Tom Lebbon	GBR	Elite Motorsport	+0.399s
10	68	Branden Oxley	AUS	Chris Dittmann Racing	+0.508s
11	67	James Hedley	GBR	Elite Motorsport	+0.666s
12	23	Bryce Aron	USA	Carlin	+0.669s
13	5	Johnathan Browne	ROI	Hillspeed	+0.683s
14	3	Javier Sagrera	SPA	Elite Motorsport	+0.711s
15	78	Frederick Lubin	GBR	Arden Motorsport	+0.809s
16	33	Flynn Jackes	AUS	Hillspeed	+1.044s
17	16	Eduardo Coseteng	FIL	Fortec Motorsport	+1.080s
18	90	Alex Fores	GBR	Chris Dittmann Racing	+1.096s
19	55	Tommy Smith	AUS	Douglas Motorsport	+1.151s
20	10	Reema Juffali	SAU	Douglas Motorsport	+1.395s
21	43	Mikkel Grundtvig	DEN	Fortec Motorsport	+1.793s