O’SULLIVAN ON THE VERGE OF GB3 TITLE AFTER OULTON PARK VICTORY

O’Sullivan on the verge of GB3 title after Oulton Park victory

BRDC Superstar Zak O’Sullivan is on the verge of claiming the 2021 GB3 Championship, in association with the BRDC title, after taking another victory at Oulton Park last weekend (11-12 September).

The 16-year-old Carlin driver claimed two pole positions in qualifying on Saturday, and converted the first of those into a commanding victory. He made a great start from pole and gradually built up a strong gap over former F4 rival Luke Browning, who was making his series debut.

O’Sullivan was nearly four seconds clear of Browning after the 13 laps of racing, but his opponent was disqualified for a technical infringement, handing second place to BRDC Rising Stars member Ayrton Simmons with Brazilian Roberto Faria completing the podium in third place.

That left O’Sullivan simply needing to bank strong points across the two races on Sunday to wrap up the title a weekend early. Starting from pole again in race two, he was overtaken by Browning on the first lap, but followed him closely for the next nine laps as he looked on course to extend his championship lead even further. But on lap 10 he went for a move on Browning for the lead and it didn’t pay off, as he skipped across the chicane at Hislops and nosed into the tyre wall and retirement.

Browning was then challenged by Faria, with the pair spinning off the track a lap later at Old Hall, seemingly handing victory to Australian Bart Horsten. Browning kept his car going, which was to prove crucial as the red flags were shown with several cars stranded after off-track incidents, and the race was stopped.

The result was counted back a couple of laps, and because Browning’s car was still running at the time of the stoppage, he was awarded the win, with Horsten third and Christian Mansell third, with Mansell making inroads into O’Sullivan’s championship lead as a result.

The final race was held in very wet conditions, but Polish-British driver Roman Bilinski controlled the contest after taking the lead on lap one having started fourth on the reverse grid, determined by the inverse qualifying order.

While Bilinski marched into the lead and won by over eight seconds from pole-sitter Mikkel Grundtvig, eyes turned to O’Sullivan, who needed a big points swing in his favour to steal the title a weekend early.

He very nearly did it, by climbing from 16th on the grid to sixth in the race. But crucially, Simmons in seventh and Mansell in 11th scored just enough points to give them a slim mathematical chance of taking the title themselves at Donington.

Frederick Lubin claimed his first podium of the season in third place, four tenths of a second clear of Javier Sagrera, with Sebastian Alvarez fifth.

The GB3 Championship will conclude at Donington Park on 16-17 October, with O’Sullivan basically needing only to finish the first race of the event to be crowned as champion.

Click here for full results from Oulton Park.