Louis Sharp extends championship lead with Donington double victory

Louis Sharp took two big steps towards winning this year’s coveted GB3 title with an impressive, near perfect weekend at Donington Park.

Hailed as one of motorsport’s brightest young talents, the British-born Kiwi teenager dominated the series’ penultimate weekend with an imposing double victory to massively extend his championship lead, with just the season finale at Brands Hatch left on the 2024 calendar.

With just three races remaining, Sharp has now stretched his lead over closest rival John Bennett to 33 points with Tymek Kucharczyk a further three points adrift. However, with 35 points awarded for a race win, Louis knows he still has a battle on his hands if he is to become the first driver in history to win back-to-back British F4 and GB3 titles.

Indeed, Sharp’s stunning performances are all the more notable as, unlike either of his two more experienced adversaries, this is his debut campaign in GB3 category. Moreover, his latest two victories at Donington came in the most testing of circumstances.

After proving his prowess on a dry track by topping the timesheets in official pre-event testing and then in Friday’s final free practice session, Saturday morning’s crucial qualifying – and the weekend’s first two races – were all held in ultra-challenging damp conditions.

Despite never having driven a GB3 in the wet at Donington, Louis overcame the odds to set the two fastest laps in qualifying to grab a double pole position and then showed his class by controlling both races to score maximum points with a pair of imperious lights-to-chequered flag wins.

Those stirring successes also won Louis the Omologato One to Watch Award as well as the Muriel Tomlinson Trophy presented for stand-out performance by the Donington Park Racing Association Club.

Completing a fantastic weekend, the 17-year-old starlet then further increased his series lead with another stand-out performance in the concluding reverse grid race. As pole sitter from race 1, the fast rising star started from a lowly 12th position on the grid but, on a now dry track where overtaking is almost impossible, the New Zealander battled his way up to sixth place, significantly passing Kucharczyk in the process.

“In terms of winning the championship, this has been a critical weekend,” admitted Louis, who considers Donington Park to be his local UK circuit having been born close-by in Nottingham. “I arrived here with four points ahead and now leave with a 33-point lead, so I have to be very happy. There is, though, still a long way to go and I know both John and Tymek will be all the more determined at Brands to make up the ground I’ve now gained on them. And I’ll be equally determined to get the job done.”

“I really must thank the whole Rodin Motorsport team for giving me an awesome car in all conditions this weekend. We are now all the more focussed for a repeat performance on the Grand Prix circuit at Brands Hatch where, of course, I won the GB4 Championship 12 months ago.”

The rising star’s latest victories have taken Rodin Motorsport back to the top of the Teams’ Championship as Britain’s premier single-seater series enters the final straight. It leads arch-rival Hitech Pulse-Eight by a slender seven points in what is now a two-horse race.

Both Drivers’ and Teams’ titles will be decided at Brands Hatch in three weeks’ time on 28-29 September. In the meantime, tomorrow (Monday) Louis will be savouring an exclusive behind-the-scenes trip to the McLaren F1 factory – a prize for leading the GB3 standings at the season’s half-way point.