Bedrin widens GB3 championship lead as Rehm suffers retirement

Nikita Bedrin extends his championship lead after race two | Credit: Jakob Ebrey via GB3 official website

Race two of three at the Hungaroring has concluded, in the wake of multiple retirements Nikita Bedrin to extend his drivers’ championship lead.

As the lights went on on lap 1, there were many going three-wide towards the back as Hitech’s Daegen Fairclough got an excellent run on Bedrin going into Turn 1 and almost secured the overtake for first place. 

In the midst of the battling further back, the first of two safety cars was brought out after GB3 debutant Jacob Micallef, Peter Bouzinelos and Xcel Motorport’s Rowan Campbell-Pilling had a major crash in turn 1.

This first safety car period was extended after Fairclough’s car began to go slow and eventually retired on the entrance to the penultimate corner - the reason for this was unknown, but naturally the British driver was quite unhappy. As a result hometown hero Martin Molnar and Nikita Bedrin were promoted higher up the field.

At the 17 minute mark, the race was suspended again for the second safety car due to a hazard that seemed to be out of view. After this brief safety car period, race leader Bedrin executed a strong restart after there was confirmation of light rain in the pitlane area.

There was a fierce fight for P11 not long after, Ricardo Baptista and Patricio Gonzalez’s fight for the position was ultimately brief.

As we reached the final 10 minutes of race two, there were three retirements by this point - Fairclough, Bouzinelos and Campbell-Pilling.

Later on, Molnar and Maxim Rehm were locked in a close battle for second place - the latter won out after overtaking the local driver into turn 1 (the most common overtaking location).

But soon after that, the German driver’s car began to go slow in the esses and lost many places. The reason Rehm was forced to retire is unknown, but his withdrawal from the race has had a major impact on the drivers’ championship - it means that Bedrin now leads by 67 points. 

Beyond this point, most action in the race calmed down as Bedrin went on to secure his victory, with a gap of 2.101s to Molnar. Additionally, Spanish driver Lucas Fluxá got his second podium of the season after finishing the race in third place.

In a post race interview with GB3, race two winner Bedrin commented that: “I think I managed both restarts good and controlled the pace from the front”.

The third and final race of round 3 (reverse grid) is at 18:10 CEST.