Luke maintains championship challenge at Donington Park

Rising star Luke Browning keep his bid to secure the 2022 GB3 Championship powered by the BRDC title on track at Donington Park after picking up a fifth podium finish of the campaign.

Luke headed into the weekend keen to close the gap at the top of the standings after an unfortunate result in the final race at Silverstone – where he had earlier scored two podium finishes – saw him lose his points lead.

Having shown strong pace in pre-event testing in his Hitech GP-run car, Luke qualified sixth on the grid for the opening race with a lap just two-tenths of a second away from pole, with his second best time also leaving him sixth on the grid for race two.

Race one would come to an early end however, when Luke was forced onto the grass trying to avoid a clash between two cars ahead – including title rival Joel Granfors – putting him out of the action on the spot.

Luke made amends however with a storming start to race two, which saw him rocket up to second on the opening lap.

From there, Luke kept the pressure firmly on leader Max Esterton before taking the flag in second spot – marking his fifth podium of the campaign.

“A good start was the key, I got the reaction time pretty much nailed and the pull away was really good,” he said. “I just managed to time it right and god was it a good feeling!

“It was a great result from P6 on the grid and the car underneath me was just amazing. It was exactly what we needed after we needed following the opening race, where luck just wasn’t on my side.”

The podium finish ahead of Granfors allowed Luke to reclaim the championship lead, and his weekend was rounded out with a fine run from 16th to ninth in the final race.

However, the points scored by Granfors in coming through from the final row to tenth place means he will take a single point lead over Luke into the next round at Snetterton in late June.