Deagen Fairclough admitted his remarkable second-half GB3 form had left him “a bit speechless” after the Hitech driver claimed his fifth victory from the past seven races at Brands Hatch.
Fairclough converted his Race 1 pole position into a commanding victory, crossing the line 5.402 seconds ahead of Rodin Motorsport’s Maxim Rehm. Championship leader Nikita Bedrin completed the podium for VRD Racing after taking a cautious approach to his battle with Rehm.
The result continued an exceptional weekend for Fairclough at his home circuit. After setting the pace in Saturday Practice, the 20-year-old claimed a record-breaking double pole in Qualifying before controlling Race 1 from the front.
Fairclough enjoys another dominant victory
Fairclough faced his greatest threat immediately after the lights went out. Rehm started alongside him on the front row following Rowan Campbell-Pilling’s grid penalty and had identified the start as his best opportunity to take the lead.
Both drivers launched cleanly, however, and Fairclough maintained first place through Paddock Hill Bend. From there, the Hitech driver quickly established an advantage and spent the remainder of the race effectively competing against himself.
Fairclough credited both his affinity for Brands Hatch and Hitech’s work in giving him the confidence required to attack the Grand Prix circuit.
“I mean what a circuit, I love it so much and the team have just given me a car that I feel so comfortable and it was just the flow really. It was a bit boring on my own like I didn’t even have the boys talking to me on the radio. But I’m so pleased and really positive and I really look forward to tomorrow.
His winning margin further demonstrated his control. Fairclough eventually crossed the line 5.402s clear of Rehm, recording the fourth-largest victory margin in a GB3 race at Brands Hatch.
The scale of the performance even surprised Fairclough, who has increasingly established himself as one of the championship’s benchmark drivers during the second half of 2026.
“Yeah, I don’t know what to say, I’m a bit speechless to be honest and just this second half has just been mega so far and hopefully we can carry this momentum on.”
Five wins from seven continue Fairclough turnaround
Fairclough’s latest success extended a dramatic turnaround after a difficult opening phase to his first GB3 campaign.
He has now won five of the past seven races across three consecutive weekends, while his Brands Hatch Qualifying double means he has also claimed five of the past six pole positions available.
Rather than pointing towards one particular breakthrough behind the change in results, Fairclough believes circumstances earlier in the campaign prevented him from demonstrating the form he always felt capable of producing.
“I don’t know. I don’t know, it’s just all the bad luck at the beginning really, it should have been from the get-go I feel but hey-ho, it is what it is and I’ve just enjoyed it now.
That difficult opening to the year left Fairclough playing catch-up in the standings, but his recent run has rapidly changed the complexion of his season. His Brands Hatch victory followed another dominant display at a circuit where he had already expressed particular confidence before the race.
Fairclough will have another opportunity to extend that sequence on Sunday. His second pole from Saturday’s Qualifying puts him at the front again for Race 2, and the Hitech driver made his objective clear when asked whether he wanted a repeat performance.
“That’s the ideal world and hopefully we can do the same.”
Rehm returns to podium after difficult weekends
While Fairclough controlled the race, Rehm welcomed a return to the podium after finding the previous two rounds more challenging.
The Rodin Motorsport driver inherited his front-row starting position when Campbell-Pilling served a three-place grid penalty. That presented Rehm with an opportunity to attack Fairclough into the opening corner, but equally strong starts from both drivers left the order unchanged.
From that point, Rehm recognised that Fairclough simply possessed greater race pace. Instead of mounting an attack at the front, the German focused on protecting second from Bedrin.
“Yeah, I think second place is still very good. I think the last two weekends I was struggling a bit so it feels good to be back on the podium step. I think this race, it was about having a good start, maybe taking Deegan in the first corner but I think we both had a decent start so we just stayed where we are for the whole race. And then I think Deagen was just a lot quicker than everybody else. I kept Bedrin behind me and that’s about the whole race. There was not much happening, not much going on.
The result gave Rehm his seventh podium of the season, although victory has so far come only once during his 2026 campaign.
Brands Hatch also offered few opportunities for Rehm to challenge once Fairclough escaped beyond striking distance. With the Grand Prix circuit punishing mistakes and making overtaking difficult, Rehm knew his best chance would come if the leader made an error.
He never received that opportunity.
“Yeah, I think on this track it’s easy to make a mistake so maybe hoping that the driver in front of you makes a mistake. But Deagen is an experienced driver so I wouldn’t expect him to do that. But that’s all you can hope for and then just stay on the track on your own, you know.
Rehm instead secured second and prevented Bedrin from gaining another position, completing a successful opening race for Rodin Motorsport.
Bedrin refuses unnecessary risk in championship fight
Bedrin approached the same battle from a considerably different perspective.
The VRD Racing driver entered Brands Hatch with a 79-point championship advantage and his first opportunity to secure the Drivers’ Championship before the Barcelona finale.
After starting third, Bedrin made a strong launch and opening lap before putting Rehm under pressure for second. However, the championship situation shaped how aggressively he approached the fight.
Rather than attempt a high-risk move and potentially sacrifice a valuable points finish, Bedrin accepted third once he recognised that overtaking Rehm would require greater risk than he wanted to take at this stage of the campaign.
“I’m quite happy with where we are. We’ve had a good start and a good opening lap. Of course, I tried to battle for P2, but you know I’m not going to suicide-divebomb in this point of the season so I’m quite happy with the points we have and yeah, it’s all about consistency from now on.”
That approach reflects the advantage Bedrin has built across the season. While his championship rivals need to maximise their remaining opportunities, the VRD Racing driver can increasingly prioritise consistent points over forcing marginal overtaking opportunities.
His Brands Hatch podium therefore represented another useful step towards the title rather than a missed opportunity to finish second.
Different priorities shape Brands Hatch podium
The three podium finishers left Race 1 with different reasons for satisfaction.
Fairclough continued a remarkable run that has transformed his season, adding a fifth victory from seven races to five poles from the past six Qualifying sessions. His pace throughout the weekend has established him as the driver to beat at Brands Hatch, and another pole gives him an immediate opportunity to repeat the result in Race 2.
Rehm returned to the podium after two weekends in which he felt he had struggled, while successfully keeping the championship leader behind throughout the race.
Bedrin, meanwhile, continued approaching the closing stages of the season with the championship rather than individual positions as his priority. He had an opportunity to challenge Rehm but recognised that third provided another strong points return without exposing himself to unnecessary risk.
Their different objectives produced a relatively settled Race 1, but Fairclough ultimately left no doubt about who controlled it. After a challenging start to 2026, five victories from seven races have turned the second half of his campaign into a dramatically different story — and another pole position gives him the opportunity to add to that run on Sunday.
