- Joel Granfors leads GB3 Championship after Silverstone win
- Daventry team have Teams’ Championship lead in sight
- Mikkel Grundtvig eyeing third Donington win after 2021 double
After a promising performance that included a win and pole position at Silverstone, Fortec Motorsport hope to continue their run of fine form in the latest GB3 Championship visit to Donington Park this weekend (28/29 May).
The Daventry-based team’s season next heads to the 1.9-mile GP layout of Donington Park in Leicester, coming off the back of a memorable trip to Silverstone at the start of the month after Swedish rookie Joel Granfors grabbed pole position and a maiden victory to back up the success of Fortec team-mate Mikkel Grundtvig at Oulton Park the month prior.
A stellar weekend moved Granfors into the overall lead of the GB3 Championship after just six races, while the Fortec squad jumped up to second spot in the Teams’ Championship table with an 11-point buffer to bridge. Granfors has started the year in exceptional form with three podiums and a victory already, while his race three charge from last into the top 10 emphasised that speed as he overpowered Luke Browning at the top of the table.
Donington Park has been a happy hunting ground for the team in recent years with four victories in 2019 alone, while current driver Grundtvig claimed two wins in his debut season from the front last year – a feat he will look to repeat this weekend to claw back the 17 points separating him from a top 10 spot in the standings.
Alongside the Scandinavian pair, former British F4 racer Zak Taylor will want to hit back after a bruising final race last time out at Silverstone dropped him out of the battle for a potential maiden podium. The teenager from the Cotswolds will fight harder than ever as he continues his learning maiden season, and will want to start strongly in qualifying to cement a charge for the podium.
The visit to Donington again features three sprint races, with qualifying kicking off the weekend on Saturday at 11:40 to decide the grid before race one later that afternoon at 15:35. Sunday’s two races take place at 10:15 and 16:50 respectively, the latter of those featuring a reversed grid from qualifying.
All three races will once again be streamed online and free to watch on MSV TV’s YouTube page with live timing by TSL Timing alongside it. You can also keep up to date as ever through Fortec Motorsport’s social media channels.
Oliver Dutton, Team Manager said:
“We’re entering the third meeting of the season in a really good place mentally after such a strong run at Silverstone. Joel in particular is in great form and will want to keep that run going, while Zak and Mikkel felt they deserved more from that weekend. We have good memories of Donington with Mikkel winning twice there last year, and we have tested well over the winter so we hope that the knowledge gained from that will put us in a good position again to be at the front this weekend.”
#21 Zak Taylor
“Qualifying will be important for us to be able to get in the mix for a good result this weekend. It didn’t work out as I hoped at Silverstone, but we’ll go to Donington and get some mileage under our belts in testing and go from there. I’m hopeful of getting some good results this weekend.”
#43 Mikkel Grundtvig
“At Silverstone we tried something a bit different to normal in qualifying with our strategy to try and get higher up into the top 10. It nearly worked, so I think that with a good run this time we can be a lot higher up at Donington. I showed what I could do and that I could race well. I have won here twice already, so I hope to do the same this weekend!”
#50 Joel Granfors
“It’s great to lead the championship, but it’s still very early days and it’s not really something I worry about too much at this stage. We’ve shown that we have the pace, so it’s not us who need to change anything. All we have to do is make sure we don’t become complacent and keep working hard. We’ve got plenty more races to win, so we’ll charge as hard as ever.”
