VRD Racing’s championship leader Nikita Bedrin admits the timing is right to “have a break” from GB3 action after his most challenging weekend of the season last time out at Silverstone.
The 20-year-old Italian resident won six of the first 11 races of 2026 as he opened up a big championship lead of over 100 points across the first half of the season. Indeed he won at least one race at each event, and took a minimum of two podium finishes per event across the four weekends at Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps, the Hungaroring and Red Bull Ring.
But upon the return to Silverstone last weekend, he started positively with the third and fifth quickest times across the two days of testing, but qualifying proved more challenging with 11th and seventh for the opening two races.
“We were struggling all weekend, so we drove in testing with some issues which put us on the wrong foot for understanding the balance” he commented.
“So for qualifying we were unprepared and we just decided to send it where we thought it was, and it was just not in the right window. So for the race we just had to survive with what we had.”
With penalties applied for other drivers, Bedrin moved up to 10th on the grid and banked eighth place in the opening contest. He followed that up with sixth in race two, having started sixth, and then threatened to join the lead scrap in the eventful finale, before taking fifth again.
A weekend haul of 44 points was Bedrin’s lowest score of the season so far, and left the door open for his rivals to make inroads into his championship lead. But as he struck trouble, so did his nearest contenders, meaning Bedrin’s pre-event championship lead of 106 points was only reduced to 103 by the end of it.
“It’s really good that we kept the points lead, we just need keep finishing the races.
He admits that after a busy run of three events within a month, the time is right to reset so he can attack the final three events of the season at Donington Park, Brands Hatch and Barcelona.
“It’s very good that we have a break now. I think this is exactly what we need to analyse everything that’s happened. It didn’t go our way at Silverstone, but we still kept a really solid gap in the championship and this is exactly what we needed.
“When the weekend is pretty bad and we still managed to do this, I think this exactly what we need to get closer to the title.”