Chris Dittmann Racing claimed its first overall podium of the GB3 Championship season at the weekend (May 6/7), as Arthur Rogeon clinched third place in the final race at Silverstone.

The French racer kept his cool in a race dominated by track limits penalties to avoid a sanction of his own, finishing third on just his second weekend of single seater racing, while Zak Taylor showed excellent pace but didn’t quite have the luck he needed for a headline result of his own.

It was a wet qualifying on Saturday meaning there was limited running time on track. Zak managed to gain twelve places with a minute left, jumping up to tenth, where he finished the session. Arthur improved to 16th, however, after penalties were applied he moved to 14th and Zak to ninth.

Conditions were treacherous for the opening contest, with rain falling throughout the day, meaning both drivers needed to be at their best to control the cars on the slippery track surface. Zak had a good start and opening lap, gaining two places to run seventh, while Arthur had a good battle with Daniel Mavlyutov and Gerrard Xie, moving past both on lap eight. He then gained another two places as cars came together, with Zak finishing a good seventh.

The rain had thankfully cleared in time for the second race on Sunday. Zak started ninth, however by the end of lap two he had dropped down to 17th trying to avoid a collision on track. Arthur was quick off the mark gaining five places to run 14th on the opening laps, before the Safety Car was brought out, with Zak having gained back several positions to 11th and Arthur in 12th. The race restarted with five minutes to go but Zak had to retire with damage at Club and, towards the end of the race, Arthur battled with Nico Christodoulou for ninth before finishing 11th, gaining eight places from his starting position.

Race three started off with Zak tenth and Arthur fifth. In the opening two laps Arthur made up one position to go into fourth and by the end of lap five was only 2.5 seconds off Oliver Stewart in third place. He was able to hold off pressure from Callum Voisin for several laps, before relenting, however he gained the place back passing Ayato Iwasaki not long afterwards. Behind him, Zak was boxed in at turn one on the opening lap, losing two places and had a tough contest, though was buoyed with some strong late race pace. Up front, however, Arthur was able to celebrate after he crossed the line as a late penalty to Voisin dropped him off the podium, promoting the youngster to his first top three finish.

There is lots for the team to take away from this weekend, with both drivers and the team looking forward to the next rounds of the GB3 Championship which take place at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium, over the weekend of June 3/4.

Zak Taylor, #9

G1 – 9, R1 – 7
G2 – 8, R2 – DNF
G3 -10, R3 –13

Championship: 18 (33 points)

“The car had really good pace. I think we were quite unlucky in qualifying as we should have been on pole I think, especially after the pace we showed in testing in the wet. We just got caught out a bit by the red flag and then traffic, so I only actually had one push lap. The opening race was good, I made up a couple of places at the start and then made a place after the race for a penalty. There wasn’t much movement at the front, really, so I couldn’t catch up to the leaders at all. The spray was quite bad, so visibility was poor, and you couldn’t really see anything. We scored good points which put us in a good place for the rest of the weekend.

“Race two got off pretty badly at the start. I started on wetter side of the grid and lost a couple of places. I then went off trying to avoid someone later in the lap, so I dropped about eight places. In the next three or four laps I managed to make my way up to 11th before the Safety Car. I was hoping to progress a bit further and then I got hit which ripped the drive shaft out and ruined the rear suspension, that was it.

“I started tenth in race three and got a fairly decent start. I got boxed it at turn one and lost two places. On the last three or four laps we seemed to have the best pace on track, in fact I think we were the fastest at the end of the race, so we should have a fast car for Spa.”

Arthur Rogeon, #18

G1 – 14, R1 – 21
G2 – 19, R2 – 10
G3 – 5, R3 – 3

Championship: 19 (32 points)

“I started at the back for race one and couldn’t see much of the track because of the spray. I had to learn these conditions and it was really hard because we’ve been in the rain in testing but not in a race with all the cars ahead of me. I was alone at the end of the race and it meant I could drive better and show what the car could do.

“I had a good start for race two. There were some wet patches throughout the race, but I managed to keep the car on the road and it felt good, thanks to the team. We had really good pace for race three and I am really happy with the podium, especially at Silverstone, and on my second weekend in single seaters. It is a really nice track so it’s nice to get that here. The goal is to keep finishing on the podium, aim for a pole position, and maybe get a win now. I would like to thank Chris Dittmann, my parents, all my sponsors for believing in me and helping me to do this season.”