Polesitter Granfors hoping to avoid Race 1 battles

Joel Granfors took pole for Race 1 in the GB3 Championship‘s first visit to Donington Park this season.

The Championship leader will line up third in Race 2 on Sunday morning, with that grid determined by each driver’s second-quickest time.

The Checkered Flag spoke to the Swedish driver ahead of Race 1.

“It was very, very tight, hundredths to [Matthew] Rees, but I’m happy with that,” he said.

“P1 for the first race and P3 tomorrow, I think.”

Granfors topped the times at the end of Thursday’s pre-event test sessions, as he did at Silverstone last time out, where he took pole for both of the first two races.

“We’ve been pretty quick around here in testing; I thought [Max] Esterson was going to do better, he’s been super fast, especially in this last session.

“But he got pole for the second race, so I’m excited for the next race coming up.”

Donington is somewhere between Oulton Park and Silverstone in terms of overtaking opportunities; the Fortec Motorsport driver will hope to use both elements to his advantage throughout the three races.

“Hopefully there’s no battle in Race 1! Hopefully I can take it from light to flag, but in Race 2 I hope we can make one or two positions up.”

He arrives at Donington with a three-point lead from double-winner at Oulton, Luke Browning, and is relishing the opportunity to lead the Championship.

“I don’t think it’s bad to lead. It doesn’t matter to me but I’d rather lead than chase because when you chase it’s a bit more pressure.

“Now I’m a lot more relaxed and [after Silverstone]. [When you lead] you can afford maybe a mistake or two without completely losing the gap to the car in front.”

Fortec sit second in the Teams’ Championship, 11 points behind Hitech GP who run Browning, Bryce Aron and Cian Shields.

Granfors assessed the team’s performance so far this season, having stepped up from the F4 British Championship with them over winter.

“I think we’re doing pretty well. It was a bit of a shame that Mikkel [Grundtvig] and Zak [Taylor] weren’t able to get the podium [at Silverstone].

“I thought they were relatively quick, but I guess there were some problems. I know Zak went off one lap, so that didn’t help but hopefully they can do well this time.”