The second GB3 Championship event of the 2025 season takes place this weekend (15-18 May) at Zandvoort, with this year’s F1 aspirants gearing up for the first international round of the campaign.
The Tatuus MSV GB3-025 era got off to a spectacular start at Silverstone at the end of April, as Hillspeed’s Freddie Slater marched to a pair of stunning victories, while Elite’s Will Macintyre wrapped up the event with a win of his own in the event finale.
With Slater absent from this event it’s JHR Developments’ Noah Lisle who heads to the home of the Dutch Grand Prix as the de facto championship leader. The Australian claimed two second places during the season opening weekend at Silverstone last month, as he made an impressive start to life in GB3.
Sophomore contender Nikita Johnson is his his nearest challenger as things stand. The American driver, racing for Hitech TGR, was another to impress with a podium in race two and further strong drives across the event. The 16-year-old was a winner in the Netherlands last year in just his third GB3 event, so expect another front-winning challenge this weekend.
Rodin’s Gianmarco Pradel, another Aussie, is just a point further back from Johnson; the Italian F4 race-winner adapted well to life in GB3 by qualifying on the front row for the season opener, which he converted into a podium at the first time of asking, while adding fourth place in race two.
All four of the championship front-runners hit dramas of one sort or another in the Silverstone reverse grid finale, allowing Xcel Motorsport’s Patrick Heuzenroeder to join the mix at the top of the table. The third Australian in the current top-five took the runner-up spot in race three for one of GB3’s new teams, and was a podium finisher at Zandvoort last year, the scene of his series debut in 2023.
Completing the run of Australian success so far, Rodin’s British F4 runner-up Alex Ninovic is another driver heading into GB3 with title aspirations, and he backed those hopes up by qualifying second for Silverstone race two, and claiming fourth and fifth place finishes in the opening contests.
Spaniard Lucas Fluxa, representing another new GB3 team in the form of Argenti with Prema, is equal on points with Ninovic, after registering 14th, eighth and fifth place finishes at Silverstone, the progression in results underlining the rapid progress the F4 graduate made during his first GB3 event.
Reigning F1 Academy Champion Abbi Pulling will surely be one to watch this weekend, having immediately established herself as a top-six contender in GB3. After banking fifth and sixth place finishes in her first GB3 weekend, she was on course for a similar result in race three until a collision, and now heads back to the scene of her F1 Academy race win last year.
The driver on the grid with the most GB3 race wins is Elite Motorsport’s Will Macintyre. The Brit claimed his fourth triumph in the Silverstone finale as he steered clear of the drama, and completes the championship top-10 after the first three races.
India’s Kai Daryanani is next up, having taken his own first GB3 podium at Silverstone, with his form demonstrated further by two top-eight qualifying results for JHR Developments.
Alpine F1 junior Keanu Al Azhari was a podium threat for Hitech TGR, the Emirati only losing his spot on the race three rostrum after a post-race penalty. His teammate Deagen Fairclough, the dominant British F4 champion emerged from a troublesome opening round by gaining an epic 18 places in the event finale, after going from 25th on the grid to seventh in just 25 minutes of racing. The Brit was a double winner in F4 at the Dutch circuit last year, and pre-season testing form suggests his Silverstone race results should be bettered this time around.
Chinese rising star Yuanpu Cui, another F1 junior on the grid and one with Mercedes backing, registered a top-10 finish for Argenti with Prema, putting him a point ahead of teammate Reza Seewooruthun, like Cui, a graduate of British F4.
Xcel’s Jack Sherwood, another moving up from F4, is next up, and took a best finish of ninth at Silverstone, while German Hugo Schwarze is back with VRD Racing.
Indian rising star Divy Nandan switches to JHR Developments for this weekend's Zandvoort action, with Elite’s Filipino-Australian Flynn Jackes just two points further behind.
The second Fortec of Bulgaria’s Stefan Bostandjiev, and the third Elite of Filipino Bianca Bustamante completes the 19-car entry.
This weekend’s event commences with a 90-minute test session at 15.00 (local time) on Thursday, and three 30-minute free practice sessions on Friday. GB3’s new two-part qualifying session to decide the grids for races one and two returns on Saturday morning (10.20/10.40), before the first race of the weekend at 16.25. Races two and three (the top-12 reverse contest) will take place at 11.10 and 16.15 on Sunday.
All races will be live streamed by clicking this link.
GB3 Championship, partnered by the BRDC, Zandvoort entry list
#3 Lucas Fluxa, Argenti with Prema
#4 Nikita Johnson, Hitech TGR
#5 Patrick Heuzenroeder, Xcel Motorsport
#6 Keanu Al Azhari, Hitech TGR
#7 Deagen Fairclough, Hitech TGR
#9 Abbi Pulling, Rodin Motorsport
#10 Reza Seewooruthun, Argenti with Prema
#11 Noah Lisle, JHR Developments
#12 Alex Ninovic, Rodin Motorsport
#16 Bianca Bustamante, Elite Motorsport
#17 Divy Nandan, JHR Developments
#21 Gianmarco Pradel, Rodin Motorsport
#23 Stefan Bostandjiev, Fortec Motorsports
#33 Hugo Schwarze, VRD Racing
#37 Will Macintyre, Elite Motorsport
#55 Flynn Jackes, Elite Motorsport
#56 Yuanpu Cui, Argenti with Prema
#78 Jack Sherwood, Xcel Motorsport
#88 Kai Daryananai, JHR Developments