Marked Improvement For Kulkarni At Silverstone As Luzio Makes GB3 Return
Silverstone Grand Prix Circuit provided an event of mixed fortunes for GB3 Championship partnered by the BRDC squad Hillspeed over the weekend, 27th/28th July, with improvements for rookie drivers Aditya Kulkarni and Marcus Luzio not necessarily rewarded with the results deserved.
After a season-best top 10 for Kulkarni at Zandvoort in The Netherlands a fortnight ago, a meeting which proved challenging in terms of physicality for the first year GB3 driver, he impressed team principal Richard Ollerenshaw at Silverstone with a major development in driving and racecraft.
While a best result of 18th position in round 17 on Sunday morning wasn’t indicative of the true level of performance produced across the weekend by the British teenager, the hard work and progression over the course of the season so far is certainly beginning to show through.
Luzio, making only his second appearance of the year in GB3 and his first run in the Hillspeed car since the start of June at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, understandably faced a very steep learning curve and went on to finish each of rounds 16, 17 and 18 in 20th position. As with his team-mate, with the benefit of more time in the car marked improvement will duly follow.
Qualifying on Saturday took place under bright skies and during the early going Kulkarni was in the mix for the top 15 but ultimately had to settle for 20th – albeit under a second shy of the top six. Luzio, undertaking his first competitive GB3 session in almost two months, was 23rd on the times.
Both Hillspeed drivers made a good start to race one at midday on Saturday, with Kulkarni getting ahead of Patrick Heuzenroeder – who had gone wide into Chapel Curve – and gaining another place to move into 18th on lap one. Luzio gained at the expense of Heuzenroeder as well to take 22nd and then, on lap two, the Safety Car was called when Tymek Kucharczyk crashed out following contact.
After the re-start on lap six, Kulkarni running in 18th and Luzio 21st, the former’s race unraveled a little as he slipped back a couple of places. On the ninth and final tour though, Kulkarni and Luzio both moved past Edward Pearson to take the chequered flag in 19th and 20th respectively.
Kulkarni and Luzio shared row 11 of the grid for round 17 at a beautifully sunny Silverstone on Sunday morning and the former aced the launch, diving to the centre to try and make places which he initially did. Further around the lap he slipped to 21st though, while Luzio maintained 22nd.
On lap three Kulkarni moved ahead of Flynn Jackes to break into the top 20 and he immediately started to pressure Pearson in a tight group. Then, on lap five at the exit of Club, Josh Irfan went wide and rejoined in Kulkarni’s path – the Hillspeed racer managing to move ahead to take 19th.
Luzio moved up a position at the expense of Irfan, who had another moment on lap seven, and shortly after Kulkarni took 18th and Luzio 20th, where they remained to the finish on lap 10, after two rivals tangled.
Race three, round 18, on Sunday afternoon was the least fruitful of the weekend with Kulkarni’s involvement ending at just the second corner after contact – he had originally launched well from 20th on the grid. Luzio started 22nd and picked up a couple of unfortunate time penalties, one for an out of position start and another for track limits, but he still placed inside the top 20 again.
Richard Ollerenshaw – Hillspeed Team Principal:
“We’ve seen a marked development of Adi as a driver in all aspects since Zandvoort, which was very challenging for him physically. We came back to Silverstone and made a significant progression, further to where Adi’s performance was back in April there. He’s been able to take the fight to a lot of other more established and experienced drivers, and now he has a good number of days in the car under his belt he is starting to develop impressively – we look forward to seeing that continue.
“Like Adi, Marcus needs some more days in the car for him to begin to enjoy more benefit of the development he is making in GB3. He’s been out of the car for a long time since his debut at Spa, so it was always going to be a challenging weekend for him, but he will continue making improvements as he gets that mileage. We’ve got a good few weeks ahead of us before we’re racing at Donington, so we’ll be working hard in the meantime to prepare as well as possible.”
There is now a lengthy six week break in the GB3 Championship calendar ahead of rounds 19, 20 and 21 of the season, the penultimate event of the 2024 season, at Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit over the weekend 7th/8th September.
2024 GB3 Championship Driver Standings (after Rd18)
21st Aditya Kulkarni, 74pts; 25th Marcus Luzio, 17pts
2024 GB3 Championship Team Standings (after Rd18)
8th Hillspeed, 91pts
