2026 | GB3 | Donington Park | Qualifying | Bedrin and Fairclough split poles

Nikita Bedrin and Deagen Fairclough shared the two pole positions available during Saturday morning’s 2026 GB3 Qualifying at Donington Park.

Championship leader Bedrin denied testing pacesetter Fairclough by just 0.056s in Qualifying 1, securing Race 1 pole with a 1m20.324s. Fairclough responded in an interrupted Qualifying 2, lowering the weekend benchmark to 1m20.107s to beat the VRD Racing driver by 0.069s and secure the top starting position for Race 2.

Fairclough had entered Qualifying as the clear favourite after topping all six pre-event test sessions across Thursday and Friday, ending the second day more than four tenths clear of his nearest rival.

2026 GB3: Donington Park: Qualifying 1: Bedrin narrowly beats Fairclough

Bedrin ended Fairclough’s run at the top by taking Race 1 pole with a 1m20.324s, which at that point represented the fastest GB3 lap of the Donington Park weekend. The Italian moved ahead with five minutes remaining and held on despite Fairclough getting within 0.056s during the closing stages.

The leading pair operated in a class of their own, with Fairclough finishing another 0.311s clear of Martin Molnar in third. The Rodin Motorsport driver maintained his impressive Qualifying consistency by securing another top-five starting position and will line up on the second row for Race 1.

Abbi Pulling produced her best lap at the end of the session to take fourth in the second Rodin entry. She finished 0.217s behind Molnar and only 0.027s ahead of teammate Maxim Rehm, giving Rodin three consecutive positions from third to fifth.

The margins became extremely tight immediately behind, with only 0.083s separating Rehm in fifth from Kyuho Lee in 10th. Rowan Campbell-Pilling led Xcel Motorsport’s challenge in sixth, only 0.035s behind Rehm, while Elite Motorsport’s Flynn Jackes followed another 0.019s back in seventh.

Lucas Fluxa took eighth in the second Xcel entry, finishing only 0.020s behind Jackes and six thousandths ahead of Arden Motorsport’s Leon Wilson. Lee completed the top 10 for Elite Motorsport, with his 1m21.018s placing him only 0.003s behind Wilson.

Jacob Micallef narrowly missed the top 10 for Hitech in 11th, followed by Hillspeed’s Peter Bouzinelos and Fortec Motorsports’ Jack Taylor. Rodrigo Gonzalez took 14th for VRD Racing and was only 0.001s behind Taylor, leaving the leading 14 drivers within 0.841s of pole.

Patricio Gonzalez finished 15th after showing strong pace in Friday testing, with Dante Vinci and Aurelia Nobels following for Hillspeed. Yuhao Fu and Ricardo Baptista completed the 19-car order, while seven drivers had one lap deleted for exceeding track limits during the session.

Qualifying 1 – Full Results (Provisional)

1. #20 Nikita Bedrin — VRD Racing — 1m20.324s
2. #6 Deagen Fairclough — Hitech — +0.056s
3. #2 Martin Molnar — Rodin Motorsport — +0.367s
4. #3 Abbi Pulling — Rodin Motorsport — +0.584s
5. #1 Maxim Rehm — Rodin Motorsport — +0.611s
6. #8 Rowan Campbell-Pilling — Xcel Motorsport — +0.646s
7. #18 Flynn Jackes — Elite Motorsport — +0.665s
8. #7 Lucas Fluxa — Xcel Motorsport — +0.685s
9. #27 Leon Wilson — Arden Motorsport — +0.691s
10. #19 Kyuho Lee — Elite Motorsport — +0.694s
11. #4 Jacob Micallef — Hitech — +0.772s
12. #11 Peter Bouzinelos — Hillspeed — +0.828s
13. #24 Jack Taylor — Fortec Motorsports — +0.840s
14. #22 Rodrigo Gonzalez — VRD Racing — +0.841s
15. #21 Patricio Gonzalez — VRD Racing — +1.029s
16. #10 Dante Vinci — Hillspeed — +1.062s
17. #12 Aurelia Nobels — Hillspeed — +1.271s
18. #5 Yuhao Fu — Hitech — +1.480s
19. #9 Ricardo Baptista — Xcel Motorsport — +1.634s

2026 GB3: Donington Park: Qualifying 2: Fairclough takes pole in interrupted session

Having narrowly missed Race 1 pole, Fairclough immediately responded in the second session but had to negotiate two separate Red Flag interruptions before securing the Race 2 starting advantage.

Patricio Gonzalez initially led the way before the first stoppage came when Nobels stopped while exiting Coppice. Once the session resumed, the field had only a limited opportunity to improve before another incident brought proceedings to an early conclusion.

Fairclough made that brief green-flag window count, producing a 1m20.107s to beat Bedrin’s earlier circuit benchmark. The lap put the Hitech driver 0.069s clear of Bedrin and secured a return to the top after his perfect six-session testing run.

The second Red Flag followed an off for Fairclough’s teammate Micallef, who made light contact with the barriers. With the session unable to develop into a conventional final push-lap battle, the laps completed immediately beforehand became decisive.

Molnar again emerged as the closest challenger to the leading pair, taking third with a 1m20.625s. Fairclough and Bedrin remained comfortably clear, however, with Molnar 0.449s behind the championship leader and 0.518s from pole.

Wilson produced the strongest Qualifying result of his GB3 career by taking fourth for Arden Motorsport. His 1m20.676s put him only 0.051s behind Molnar, while Rehm secured fifth for the second consecutive session, another 0.097s further back.

Fluxa led Xcel Motorsport in sixth, finishing 0.011s ahead of Micallef, who retained seventh despite his session-ending incident. Patricio Gonzalez slipped from the early benchmark to eighth, while Bouzinelos delivered Hillspeed’s strongest result of the morning in ninth.

Campbell-Pilling completed the top 10 with a 1m21.063s, leaving the first 10 drivers covered by 0.956s. Pulling finished just outside that group in 11th ahead of Rodrigo Gonzalez, while Taylor and Fu occupied 13th and 14th.

Baptista placed 15th, while the shortened session left Lee, Jackes, Vinci and Nobels with substantially slower representative times. Nobels’ 1m28.583s sat outside the 110% Qualifying benchmark, with the provisional classification listing the Brazilian 19th.

Qualifying 2 – Full Results (Provisional)

1. #6 Deagen Fairclough — Hitech — 1m20.107s
2. #20 Nikita Bedrin — VRD Racing — +0.069s
3. #2 Martin Molnar — Rodin Motorsport — +0.518s
4. #27 Leon Wilson — Arden Motorsport — +0.569s
5. #1 Maxim Rehm — Rodin Motorsport — +0.666s
6. #7 Lucas Fluxa — Xcel Motorsport — +0.750s
7. #4 Jacob Micallef — Hitech — +0.761s
8. #21 Patricio Gonzalez — VRD Racing — +0.805s
9. #11 Peter Bouzinelos — Hillspeed — +0.829s
10. #8 Rowan Campbell-Pilling — Xcel Motorsport — +0.956s
11. #3 Abbi Pulling — Rodin Motorsport — +0.967s
12. #22 Rodrigo Gonzalez — VRD Racing — +1.078s
13. #24 Jack Taylor — Fortec Motorsports — +1.443s
14. #5 Yuhao Fu — Hitech — +1.468s
15. #9 Ricardo Baptista — Xcel Motorsport — +1.750s
16. #19 Kyuho Lee — Elite Motorsport — +5.414s
17. #18 Flynn Jackes — Elite Motorsport — +7.089s
18. #10 Dante Vinci — Hillspeed — +7.567s
19. #12 Aurelia Nobels — Hillspeed — +8.476s

Bedrin will therefore start Race 1 alongside Fairclough, with Molnar and Pulling forming the second row. The positions reverse at the front for Race 2, where Fairclough starts alongside the championship leader before Molnar and Wilson line up behind them.

The opening race of the Donington Park weekend is scheduled to begin at 15:10 BST on Saturday.