Matthew Rees, current double F4 British champion, enjoyed a strong start to his maiden GB3 Championship campaign with a debut podium at Oulton Park over Easter weekend.
The opening qualifying session of the season would finally be the first chance for teams and drivers to see where they sat, and Matt performed brilliantly. He claimed fourth position with both his fastest and second fastest laps, which would set the grids for races one and two, respectively, a good reward for the JHR Developments team who had worked hard to fix damage from a minor off track excursion in testing the day before.
The BRDC SuperStar was handed a boost before the opening contest when grid penalties for rivals promoted him to third on the grid and he made a good start, with a slight chance of grabbing second position, but took a mature approach to avoid risking contact and damage to slot in behind Roberto Faria.
Unfortunately, from then onwards it was a challenge for the Welsh teenager, as he looked quicker than Faria but was unable to work a clean overtaking opportunity on a tight Oulton Park circuit, compounded by losing valuable downforce in the dirty air. However, third place, a podium, and 24 championship points was a handsome reward for his efforts.
It was a similar story for the second contest, held on Bank Holiday Monday. Matt got a clean start but found his progress thwarted by Joel Granfors ahead, clearly quicker but unable to get a clear run to allow him a chance of scoring a second podium, crossing the line in fourth position, and scoring another good haul of points.
Starting back in 16th for the reversed grid race, Matt knew it would be a tough task to make forward progress, especially as he used the most worn set of tyres he had left for that contest. Sitting in a huge train of cars, which stretched from sixth to 20th position, hurt his tyres even more, and he was unable to keep the pressure up to the end of the race, being classified 16th.
Matt said:
“Qualifying wasn’t the best result, but it was decent getting P4 for both races and then Joel had a grid penalty which put us up to P3. I had a nice start to race one and maybe could have had my elbows out a bit more which would have got us second. Sitting in the dirty air around here really hurts so making the pass wasn’t easy, but other than that the positives are we got our first trophy of the year and a good number of points to open the season.
“There’s so much more time in the car which you can see from the onboard, but you can’t really get close as you get lots of aero wash. If I had got the start for race two right maybe I could have gained a place, but otherwise it was a positive race. I can’t complain – it’s just about being patient.
“I made a half decent start to race three but just couldn’t really pass. We had on our worst tyres, and I don’t think doing 14 laps behind other cars was good for them, so they were dead. I tried to go forward but I lost time in the last few laps and just faded away. We have had a positive weekend and can look forward to Silverstone next time out. We’ve had a lot better start to this season than we did last year, so I’m happy with how it has gone, we’re off the line, and hopefully we’ll do exactly what we did last year and at the next round get two wins.”
Matt, who is also a member of the Motorsport UK Academy, will be back out in action in the GB3 Championship in just over two weeks’ time as the series travels to the home of the British Grand Prix, Silverstone, for three more rounds of the 2020 season.
