Chris Dittmann Racing made a return to the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit at the weekend (July 26-28), showing good race pace in the GB3 Championship.

The team had an expanded three-car line up for the meeting, with New Zealander Jacob Douglas making his debut in the series, joining full-season teammates Flynn Jackes and Seb Murray.

After testing and practice sessions on Thursday and Friday, the three drivers jumped in their cars for qualifying on Saturday morning where Seb finished 14th, Jacob 21st, and Flynn was close behind in 22nd after a weight imbalance in the car affected its handling.

There was a Safety Car early in the opening race, which meant there were only four laps of racing to the flag thereafter. Seb held onto 14th position, whilst Jacob and Flynn both made up positions finishing 17th and 18th, with all three cars showing pace, which showed promise for the two races on Sunday.

On Sunday morning, Jacob had a good start off the line but would finish the race where he started, in 19th, but Flynn found it tricky to catch up with the train of cars ahead who were following along in each other’s slipstream. He emerged unscathed after some contact with another car on lap seven and finished 22nd. Seb had a good start, making up positions on the opening laps but made a small mistake going through Abbey, which lost him a few positions. Closing in on the top 10 in the final stages, he reached the chequered flag in 13th.

Race three also featured a short Safety Car on lap one, and once racing was back underway, Jacob showed solid pace making his way through the grid to finish the race in 16th after gaining five places. Flynn also made some good moves, crossing the line 17th, making up six positions. Seb had an impressive recovery drive after having contact at turn one which put him in last place, battling his way back through the pack to take the flag in 14th.

The GB3 Championship now has a few weeks’ off for the summer break and will be back racing at Donington Park over the weekend of September 5-8. Chris Dittmann Racing now looks forward to racing at Knockhill in Scotland, over August 9-11, with the British F4 side of the team.

Jacob Douglas, #9

G1 – 21, R1 – 17
G2 – 19, R2 – 19
G3 – 21, R3 – 16

Championship: 26 (11 points)

“We had a pretty tricky qualifying, not adapting to the conditions very well with the grip that we had, so I had to start quite far back for race one. I managed to move forward a couple of places, but it was still pretty difficult. I tried to maximise what I had and that’s all I could do.

“Race two and three were pretty eventful, with lots going on. I had a better start, so I moved up some places and had some pace as well, which was good. Hopefully at Donington Park we can improve our qualifying to start the weekend off a bit better, but I have really enjoyed this weekend, so a big thanks to Chris and the team.”

Flynn Jackes, #55

G1 – 22, R1 – 18
G2– 20, R2 – 22
G3 – 23, R3 – 17

Championship: 20 (75 points)

“Going into qualifying we found that we had an issue with the car, as the weight was uneven, so I went into qualifying with a new car. I was starting a bit out of position but going into race one I got a good start up until the Safety Car and then after that everyone formed into a line, and no one could overtake.

“We had a bit of front push in race two, so I got dropped from the train ahead and then I was in a predicament where I couldn’t catch the cars in front because they were all going in each other’s slipstream, but I was able to drop the car behind me. The biggest positive we can take away from our weekend is our ability to adapt. After finding the issue with the balance late on Friday, we tried new setup changes throughout the races and used them as practice sessions and we were able to get on top of that pretty quickly.”

Seb Murray, #91

G1 – 14, R1 – 14
G2 – 11, R2 – 13
G3 – 14, R3 – 14

Championship: 19 (85 points)

“Qualifying was good. In the first run I made a couple mistakes, so I didn’t manage to put a decent lap together, but my second run was quite good, and I ended up qualifying P10 and P14. In the first race I started on the backfoot as I didn’t have a great launch off the line and lost a couple positions there, but I made my way back up. Unfortunately, there was a Safety Car, and it was out for a good few laps, which hindered my improvement, but the pace was definitely there.

“I got up into P9 in the second race and then made a little mistake through Abbey which lost me a few positions, but I came across a line P13. Race three was also tricky. I had a good launch off the line but unfortunately contact at turn one caused me to go down the order. After that, I managed to get my elbows out and made my way back up to P14. It wasn’t a bad weekend overall as we have really good pace, so a big thanks to the team as they did a great job throughout, and we’ll focus on the next round.”