It’s been a mixed weekend for the Aussies competing in the newly named GB3 Championship (formerly the British Formula 3 Championship) as Christian Mansell moved up the standings, while Bart Horsten dropped down the order.
Heading into the Snetterton round Mansell and Horsten were third and fourth in the standings respectively, with Mansell finishing the weekend in second and Horsten dropping to ninth.
Although he moved up a spot, Mansell had his least successful round of the season so far finishing seventh and 11th in the opening two races.
His first race of the weekend proved quite strong though, as Mansell started in P15 and made up eight places.
Starting towards the back of the grid for the final outing of the weekend, the 16-year-old enjoyed a solid run throughout the 10-lap race to make up five places and finish 10th outright.
Like Mansell, Horsten was unable to continue his solid run of results as of late as he clocked in his lowest pool of points for the year.
It all started with a disappointing qualifying session where he was unable to post a time due to rear wheel damage, forcing him to start race one for the back.
The West Australian then showed plenty of fight for the opening two races, moving up eight places in race one and five places in race two to finish 10th and 12th respectively.
Starting from the back of the grid in the final race, Horsten unfortunately couldn’t repeat his efforts from the first outing and ended up crossing the finish line in 16th place to score no points.
At the end of the round, Mansell now sits 99 points behind championship leader Zak O'Sullivan in second place, while Horsten is a further 63 points behind in ninth place.
Joining Mansell and Horsten in the championship’s fifth round of the season was another Australian in Tommy Smith.
With Smith’s regular championship, the Formula European Regional Championship on its midseason break, the Victorian has committed to rounds in August.
It was a decent outing for Smith in his first run in the championship, grabbing points in all three races – his highest being 12th in race one before two 15th places for races two and three.
It’s back-to-back rounds for the championship with the next race meeting to take place at Silverstone this weekend.