Zakspeed: How O’Sullivan took the 2021 GB3 Championship

Zak O’Sullivan has officially taken the 2021 GB3 Championship title with a win in Race 1 at Donington Park on Saturday.

It’s the 16-year-old’s first title in car racing, having finished as runner-up in the 2019 Ginetta Junior Championship to GB3 debutant James Hedley, and falling just four points short of the 2020 F4 British Championship title to Luke Browning.

He only needed to finish Race 1 to officially be crowned, as an element of sporting competition has to have taken place that weekend for a driver to claim the title.

In what’s been a stellar season for the Gloucestershire driver, O’Sullivan topped every stat table going into the final weekend.

After 21 races, he had taken 12 podiums, led 56 laps, six races, gained the most points for positions gained in Race 3, six fastest laps, four poles and five wins.

His first GB3 win came at Brands Hatch in Race 2, with two more coming in Round 3 at Donington in July, a reverse-grid win at Silverstone in August and Race 1 spoils at Oulton Park in the penultimate round of the season.

O’Sullivan has been shortlisted for the Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award alongside fellow GB3 race-winners, Ayrton Simmons, Luke Browning and Oliver Bearman, the latter recently crowned as ADAC and Italian F4 champion.

His four pole positions up to Donington have regularly kept him out of trouble this season, and even with his two retirements he averaged 21.619 points per race after 21 races.

He took another pole on Saturday, starting Race 1 from P1, and Race 2 from P3. He starts the reverse-grid Race 3 from the back, so will have plenty of overtaking to do in his final race of a crowning season.

When The Checkered Flag caught up with him after qualifying, O’Sullivan said “Getting pole doesn’t really change too much.

“I think we had the Championship celebrations before Quali.

“Qualifying was good. I wasn’t really expecting it, I improved my driving from testing as I’d picked up some bad habits between Oulton Park and Donington.”