GB3: Abbi Pulling achieves first ever podium finish, Bianca Bustamante banks experience on first visit to Brands Hatch
- LIAM REDFORD
- Aug 25
- 8 min read
Abbi Pulling secured a breakthrough podium finish in the GB3 Championship as she finished all three races inside the top-10 at Brands Hatch. Pulling used her experience of the Grand Prix circuit to good effect by finishing races one and two in eighth and ninth positions respectively, and became the first woman to stand on the podium in the rebranded GB3 Championship era.
Abbi Pulling secured a breakthrough podium finish in the GB3 Championship as she finished all three races inside the top-10 at Brands Hatch. Pulling used her experience of the Grand Prix circuit to good effect by finishing races one and two in eighth and ninth positions respectively.
Starting from fourth position in race three, Pulling initially fell back to sixth before utilising her racecraft to move forward in the closing stages to take the chequered flag in third position as incidents unfolded around her. As a result, Pulling became the first woman to stand on the podium in the rebranded GB3 Championship era.
It was a more challenging weekend for Elite Motorsport driver Bianca Bustamante who achieved a best result of 19th on her Brands Hatch debut. Bustamante nonetheless gained vital knowledge of a new circuit and as she continues her rookie season in the GB3 Championship.
Both Pulling and Bustamante arrived at Brands Hatch following a positive last round at Silverstone. At the second visit to the home of British motorsport, Pulling achieved a best finish seventh, her best result since the season opener. As a result, the Rodin Motorsport driver moved closer to the fringes of the top-10 of the championship standings.
Bustamante has made excellent progress during her rookie campaign and this was further highlighted at Silverstone. In an expanded grid of drivers, Bianca achieved her fifth top-15 result of the season while scoring championship points in all three races.
Now making her debut at the Brands Hatch circuit, Bustamante was ready to face a significant challenge in light of her inexperience on the Grand Prix circuit. Unlike Pulling, the Elite Motorsport driver entered the weekend with no prior starts to her name and also faced challenges at the two prior test days held earlier in the year.
For Pulling, she was looking to lean on her experience of the high-speed circuit from the British F4 Championship where she took a trip to the rostrum back in 2020. Pulling also has a victory and three other podium finishes to her name at F4 level and was aiming to carry this form into her GB3 Championship debut at the circuit.
With extremely limited testing opportunities available on the Grand Prix layout, both drivers participated in official test session which took place in April and August. Despite Bustamante’s limited running, she still able to gain experience of the circuit ahead of the weekend. Pulling’s pace was consistent as she ended both test days inside the overall top-10.
Friday testing was held on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit and was therefore not fully representative of the running for the remainder of the weekend. Nonetheless, both drivers completed significant mileage as they turned 149 laps between them over the course of the day. Pulling’s fastest lap of the Indy layout placed her in tenth position, while Bustamante set the 21st quickest lap as she continued to get to grips with the challenging circuit.
Due to the lack of pre-event testing held on the Grand Prix layout, the GB3 Championship drivers were given an additional fifteen-minute practice session on Saturday morning to re-familiarise themselves with the circuit. It was an extremely positive session for Pulling who set the sixth fastest time overall on a 1:18.796. Bustamante also built up her confidence with her quickest time of a 1:20.974 coming on the final lap of the session to place the Elite Motorsport driver in 20th position.
Qualifying took place later that morning and consisted of two short sessions to set the grids for all three races. The first session was interrupted mid-way through following an incident for Nikita Johnson with Pulling in 12th position and Bustamante in 21st prior to the resumption.
A little over five minutes remained when the green flag was displayed with both drivers looking to make further improvements. Pulling was able to improve to a 1:19.160 which placed her in tenth position, while Bustamante’s final lap of qualifying saw her finish the session in 21st position on a 1:21.369.
The second qualifying session directly followed and ran uninterrupted which allowed Pulling and Bustamante to improve on the times from the earlier session. Pulling was extremely consistent in the latter half of qualifying and her quickest lap of a 1:18.885 placed the Rodin Motorsport driver in ninth position. Bustamante came within a tenth of a second of beating her benchmark set in morning practice as she qualified in 20th position with a fastest lap of a 1:21.091.
Race one of the weekend took place on Saturday afternoon with the grid positions based on the results from the first qualifying session. As a result, Pulling lined up from tenth with Bustamante in 21st position. Due to Kanato Le starting from the pit lane, Pulling had an open space ahead of her on the grid and she took advantage of this to make a fast start and move into eighth position at the conclusion of lap one.
Bustamante also got an excellent launch as she overtook Patricio Gonzalez while also doing a nice job to avoid Jack Sherwood who had an off-track moment through the middle sector. The Elite Motorsport driver ended the first lap in 18th, before she was forced to defend from Gonzalez. The Mexican racer ended lap two just a tenth behind and after he moved ahead at Paddock Hill bend, Sherwood slipped through at Druids. This lost Bustamante some momentum and consequently Le was able to move his Hillspeed machine ahead at Surtees with Bianca settling into 21st position.
Inside the top-10 overtaking was proving challenging, however Pulling’s pace was strong as she was comfortably maintaining eighth position. She began to cut the gap to teammate Gianmarco Pradel and by the end of lap six, the Australian driver had a margin of just four tenths of a second. Pulling’s consistency also enabled her to open out a margin of two seconds to Kai Daryanani behind and therefore she could focus forward on applying pressure to Pradel.
Bustamante remained in 21st and she was working on improving her lap times in race trim, while ensuring she stayed consistent on her debut at Brands Hatch. On lap 13, Jack Sherwood went into the gravel at Stirlings and then promoted Bustamante inside the top-20 with the safety car being deployed as a result.
The race was resumed for a final two laps and Pulling was looking to move forward. She remained tucked under the rear wing of Pradel as she aimed to force her rival into a mistake. Misfortune struck for Bustamante who pulled into the pits one lap from the end of the race with a technical issue. Pulling maintained her position to chequered flag to secure an eighth-place finish in race one to score her seventh top-10 result of the season.
Race two of the weekend was initially scheduled for Sunday morning, however an incident in an earlier Ginetta Junior Championship race led to a three-hour delay for the GB3 Championship drivers. Nonetheless, the race was still scheduled for its full distance with the grid positions based on the results from the second qualifying session. Therefore, Pulling started from ninth on the grid with Bustamante from 20th position.
As the lights went out, it was an even start throughout the field before Pulling looked to the inside at Druids. The Rodin Motorsport driver was just unable to make her move, before she came under threat from Enzo Tarnivanichkul. Good car placement from Pulling ensured she retained ninth position while an incident unfolded behind her. After Tarnivanichkul and Keanu Al Azhari made contact on the exit of Surtees, the Hitech TGR car spun and stopped at the side of the circuit.
Bustamante initially lost out to Nikita Johnson off the line, however following Al Azhari’s spin, the Elite Motorsport driver moved back ahead of Johnson into 19th position. The safety car was then deployed to retrieve the stricken car with Pulling remaining in ninth and Bustamante just inside the top-20.
The race resumed on lap five with Pulling just a quarter of a second behind Kanato Le. She continued to apply significant pressure to the Japanese driver as the tyres came back up to temperature. After resisting Johnson’s challenge on the restart, the American racer moved ahead on lap seven with Bustamante settling into 20th position.
Pulling remained within DRS range of Le during the middle portion of the race as the lap times among those just inside the top-10 were extremely close. This made overtaking opportunities difficult to fashion, however Pulling ensured Noah Lisle was unable to make a move behind.
Bustamante remained extremely consistent as the race progressed and she improved upon her quickest race lap from Saturday’s contest. On the final tour, Rodrigo Gonzalez went off the road at Stirlings and this promoted Bianca up a position with the Elite Motorsport driver taking the chequered flag in 19th position. Although Lisle cut the deficit to Pulling in the closing stages, Abbi made it back-to-back top-10 finishes with a ninth-place result in race two.
For the final race of the weekend, the grid positions were based upon the combined results from qualifying with the top-12 positions reversed. This meant that Pulling started from fourth position as she targeted her maiden podium result, while Bustamante lined up from 21st on the grid. It was a difficult initial launch for Pulling who fell back to sixth behind Kai Daryanani and a fast-starting Deagan Fairclough who moved through from tenth on the grid to end lap one in fifth.
Pulling started lap two in sixth position as she settled into her rhythm, while Bustamante remained in 21st. The Elite Motorsport driver did a nice job to initially remain within DRS range of Rodrigo Gonzalez as the rear wings opened at the conclusion of the second lap. In the early stages of the race, Fairclough was looking to break away from Pulling and by lap three, Abbi was over a second behind the Hitech TGR driver.
Nonetheless, she was protecting her position well from Hiyu Yamakoshi and after Daryanani and Fairclough began battling for fourth position, Pulling closed in once more. Bustamante was then handed a ten-second time penalty for a false start, nonetheless she continued to improve her lap times while running in 21st position.
Pulling continued to watch the battle unfold ahead of her and on lap eight, a new personal best time was set by the Rodin Motorsport driver. On lap 11, Will McIntyre went off the road at Hawthorns as he attempted to pass Jack Sherwood for second. As a result of this incident, the safety car was deployed with McIntyre’s car requiring recovery by the marshals.
This promoted Pulling into fifth and Bustamante into 20th position as the race resumed for a final five minutes. On the restart, Pulling was looking to make up ground and after Daryanani ran wide out of Surtees, Fairclough drew level down Pilgrims Drop.
Pulling briefly looked to go three-wide into Hawthorns, before backing out of the move while Fairclough made contact with Daryanani. This delayed both cars with Pulling moving through into third position, before Yamakoshi forced her to defend through the high-speed middle sector.
Just behind, further contact between Gianmarco Pradel and Patrick Heuzenroeder resulted in the Xcel Motorsport driver finding the gravel trap at Stirlings. This incident necessitated a second safety car period with little time left for a restart.
The safety car pulled into the pits with just a few seconds remaining and therefore the race ended prior to the green flag being displayed with Pulling claiming her first podium finish in the GB3 Championship as she crossed the line in third position. Bustamante took the chequered flag in 18th spot, before she was dropped to 19th once her ten-second penalty was applied.
Pulling enjoyed her best weekend in the GB3 Championship to date at Brands Hatch as the Rodin Motorsport driver secured her largest haul of championship points.
Although it was a more challenging event for Bustamante, she continued to learn the challenging circuit while banking vital knowledge. The next round of the GB3 Championship is set to take place at Donington Park with the drivers visiting the Leicestershire circuit on the weekend of the 4th/5th October.
