Heuzenroeder claims three points finishes at Donington Park after an unlucky qualifying session
Sept 9th 2024
Patrick Heuzenroeder scored three-point finishes during Round 7 of the GB3 championship season, but was hampered by an unlucky qualifying session where a red flag derailed his prospects for a promising weekend.
As GB3 returned from a five-week summer break, Heuzenroeder kicked off the action at Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit with a set of impressive results in practice. He was placed seventh on a single day of running at the 4.020 km (2.498 miles) venue on the week before Round 7, and on Friday’s official pre-event testing day he was looking fast, placing 4th in FP3, the final session of the day.
Despite being on par with the GB3 title contenders in practice, qualifying on Saturday morning saw Heuzenroeder finish an unrepresentative 15th, with his second-best lap time placing him in 12th. Light rain which increased in intensity throughout the session contrasted the dry running and higher temperatures that he and his car seemed to excel in earlier in the week.
However, after being impeded by another driver on his first push lap, it was a red flag that was thrown late in the 20-minute session that ultimately hurt Heuzenroeder’s session the most, putting a halt to a lap that was 0.4 seconds faster than his previous best effort when he was just two corners from the line. Qualifying was subsequently not restarted after the stoppage, leaving the Australian out of position for all three races and setting the scene for a tough weekend.
In Race 1 on Saturday afternoon, despite a strong getaway, Heuzenroeder was spun by another car at turn one, dropping him to the back of the field on the first lap. Despite the setback, ‘The Racing Kelpie’ recovered to 18th place, confidently tackling a punishing wet-dry surface that saw many mistakes by rivals further up the field.
Mixed conditions returned on a bleak Sunday morning at Donington Park, forcing the GB3 field of 20 cars onto wet tyres for Race 2. Heuzenroeder started the 20-minute contest in 12th place and he executed another brilliant start, challenging for 10th place on the approach to turn one. However, as the mid-pack battled for the limited track space, he was pushed off the circuit on the exit of the corner which dropped him to 17th position.
The 18-year-old had moved forward two positions by the chequered flag, with some impressive racecraft on a wet track late in the contest to snatch 15th and add another six points to his season tally.
The clouds that had loomed over Donington Park throughout the weekend largely cleared for Race 3, setting up the only contest of the round with a completely dry circuit. Heuzenroeder started from 15th on the grid and held his position throughout the 25-minute outing. A post-race penalty for a track limits violation later demoted him to 18th place.
Heuzenroeder sits 12th in the championship standings after Round 7 of his maiden campaign in the GB3 Championship. With 105 points up for grabs at the 2024 season finale, which will take place at the Brands Hatch Grand Prix Circuit on September 28-29, he will look to reproduce results similar to those he scored in Continental Europe, which included four top-five finishes and one podium.
Patrick Heuzenroeder said:
“It’s been a difficult weekend. I showed that I had the pace to challenge for the top-ten and top-five positions throughout testing, and I felt really confident in the car, but in qualifying the weather didn’t suit our setup quite so well and a late red flag when I was set to improve my lap time significantly put us firmly on the back foot from the outset and carried through into every race.
“As always I will use the challenges to learn and develop, even though its very frustrating to have been caught up in some incidents over which I had little control. There is always something to take away from a race weekend. I will reset and look to bounce back at Brands Hatch to end the season on a high.”
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