GB3: Bianca Bustamante matches career best result, Abbi Pulling returns to the top-10 at the Hungaroring

Bianca Bustamante continued to take steps forward in her rookie season in the GB3 Championship as the Elite Motorsport driver matched her career best finish at the Hungaroring. Abbi Pulling also enjoyed a return to form as she finished all three races inside the top-10.

Photo credits: JEP

Bianca Bustamante continued to take steps forward in her rookie season in the GB3 Championship as the Elite Motorsport driver matched her career best finish at the Hungaroring. Bustamante made superb improvements throughout the weekend and finished races two and three in 13^th position, while confidently running among the midfield drivers.

Rodin Motorsport driver Abbi Pulling also enjoyed a return to form as she finished all three races inside the top-10. Pulling showed excellent one lap pace which resulted in a qualifying result of seventh, before the reigning F1 Academy champion duelled for positions across the three races. A best result of ninth was not representative of the strong pace she displayed, however Pulling banked vital championship points as we move into the second half of the season.

Following the second overseas event of the season last time out at Spa-Francorchamps, the GB3 Championship drivers arrived at the Hungaroring for the fourth round of the season. It was a tough weekend in the Ardennes for both Pulling and Bustamante who battled changeable conditions throughout the event. Pulling was now looking to recapture the form which saw her twice finish inside the top-6 in the season opener at Silverstone, while Bustamante was aiming to draw upon her strong performances at Zandvoort.

Both drivers had experience of the Hungaroring courtesy of their 2022 W Series campaigns. Pulling secured a top-5 result and Bustamante banked vital experience of a challenging track which she was now looking to build upon three years later. Although the circuit is famed for its technical layout and difficult overtaking opportunities, the addition of DRS was for 2025 was set to make the trio of GB3 Championship events closely contested.

On-track action began on Thursday with a pair of test sessions for the drivers to work on car setup. During the first session on Thursday morning, Pulling set the second fastest time with her quickest lap of a 1:38.621 seeing the Rodin Motorsport driver begin the weekend on the front foot.

Bustamante began the day in 16^th position, however the Elite Motorsport driver was the only driver who improved her time in the second session. Despite the hotter track temperatures, Bustamante found over a second to end the day in 14^th, just three-quarters of a second away from the top-8. Due to an issue during this session, Pulling only completed eight laps before bouncing back in free practice one on Friday morning.

The reigning F1 Academy champion returned to the top-10 in the first free practice session, while completing 20 laps of the challenging Hungaroring circuit. Bustamante again improved upon her best lap from the previous session which saw her set a time of a 1:40.397 and end the morning in 15^th spot.

Photo credits: JEP

Free practice two took place later on Friday afternoon and this was the final opportunity for the drivers to work on their cars ahead of qualifying. Bustamante closed out the day by shaving another quarter of a second off her best time to set the 16^th fastest lap overall. Pulling added another 22 laps to her tally with the Rodin Motorsport driver once again inside the top-10 in ninth position.

Qualifying for the trio of races was split over a pair of sessions which were held on Saturday morning at the Hungaroring. Due to the nature of the circuit, the majority of fast lap times were set during the early portion of both sessions and therefore maximising the new tyre performance was crucial.

In the first qualifying session, Pulling set the eighth fastest time overall with a lap of a 1:38.044. This time was just half a second away from pacesetter Keanu Al Azhari to underline the close and competitive nature of the GB3 Championship. Along with Pulling, Bustamante also set her quickest time of the event to date with a 1:39.760 placing her in 16^th position.

For the second session which immediately followed, the lap times improved further. Pulling was able to dip below the 1:38 mark for the first time all weekend with her quickest lap of a 1:37.993 elevating her one place to seventh. Bustamante improved by a further half a second with the Elite Motorsport driver’s time of a 1:39.249 seeing her qualify in 16^th.

Race one at the Hungaroring took place on Saturday afternoon with the grid positions based on the quickest times from the first qualifying session. This meant that Pulling lined up from eighth, while Bustamante’s Elite Motorsport machine started from 16^th on the grid. It was a clean start throughout the field, however Pulling lost out through the initial turns as she fell to tenth.

Photo credits: JEP

Bustamante remained in 16^th position after lap one, however she was quickly applying pressure to the drivers ahead and showing good confidence in the early stages. At the end of lap two, Bustamante was just a tenth of a second behind Hugo Schwarze and with the VRD driver’s front wing damaged, Bianca was able to overtake the German racer into turn one.

The Elite Motorsport driver was now inside the top-15 and she was quickly closing down on the group ahead. Just inside the top-10, Pulling continued to chase the JHR Developments driver of Kai Daryanani. After Daryanani fell outside of DRS range of the driver ahead, Pulling closed in further and she was able to mount a sustained challenge on her rival.

On lap four, the safety car was deployed after the fire extinguisher was deployed on Flynn Jackes’ car and he was forced to retire from the race. This promoted Bustamante to 14^th and when the race resumed on lap seven, she was just half a second behind Xcel Motorsport driver Jack Sherwood.

Pulling continued to run closely behind Daryanani as her rival once again lost touch with the group of drivers ahead. On lap eight, she was just a quarter of a second behind Daryanani and as a result, this brought the Argenti with Prema machine of Lucas Fluxa into contention. Three laps later, Fluxa was able to capitalise and he overtook Pulling as the Rodin Motorsport driver fell to 11^th position.

The positions remained closely contested into the final stages and the nature of the Hungaroring layout meant that overtaking remained challenging. Pulling therefore took the chequered flag in 11^th position with Bustamante completing a solid race in 14^th position. A post-race penalty awarded to Fluxa for forcing Pulling off the track meant that the Rodin Motorsport driver was elevated into tenth position in the final classification.

Photo credits: JEP

Race two of the weekend took place on Sunday morning with the grid based upon the fastest times set in the second qualifying session on Saturday. Therefore, Pulling lined up from seventh position with Bustamante looking to make progress from 16^th. As the lights went out, positions were closely contested into the first turn and contact was made between Jack Sherwood and Kai Daryanani.

Bustamante did a superb job to avoid the incident ahead of her by taking to the run-off area, while also overtaking teammate Flynn Jackes.

At the end of the first lap, Bustamante was up to 13^th position as the safety car was deployed to retrieve the two stricken cars. It was a more challenging opening lap for Pulling who fell to tenth and was looking ahead to the restart to recover lost positions. It was a quick neutralisation period and Pulling was immediately applying the pressure to Reza Seewooruthun on the restart, while also defending from Lucas Fluxa,

Pulling’s attack forced Seewooruthun to lose time and he quickly fell out of DRS range of Patrick Heuzenroeder ahead. Meanwhile, Bustamante enjoyed a strong restart as she held off Jackes while confidently running with the midfield group of drivers. This ensured she remained with one second of the car ahead and by utilising her DRS, Bustamante was maintaining a consistent gap to Jackes behind.

Pulling continued to shape for a move on Seewooruthun during the middle portion of the race and on lap eight, she made the move into turn one. The Rodin Motorsport driver quickly pulled away and was the fourth fastest driver once she was into clean air. Pulling’s speed through the high-speed middle sector was especially impressive and this allowed her to make sizeable gains on Heuzenroeder ahead.

By lap ten, Pulling was in DRS range of Heuzenroeder and she was quickly cut the margin to just half a second. Overtaking remained challenging and with Heuzenroeder himself utilising DRS, gaining an advantage on the Australian driver was difficult.

Nonetheless, Pulling kept applying the pressure and took the chequered flag just half a second behind her rival in ninth position. It was also a strong end to the contest for Bustamante who kept Jackes out of DRS range for the majority of the race. The Elite Motorsport driver therefore matched her personal best result in the GB3 Championship by finishing in 13^th position.

Photo credits: JEP

For the final race of the weekend, the grid positions were based on a top-12 reversal of the fastest laps set in qualifying. As a result, Pulling lined up from fifth position with Bustamante in 15^th after a grid penalty was applied to Jack Sherwood due to the first lap incident in race two. Following a clean initial launch, Pulling lost a few positions through the opening turns before she avoided the spinning Elite Motorsport machine of Will McIntyre.

At the end of the first lap, the Rodin Motorsport driver ran in eighth with Bustamante up to 14^th position as she held off the challenge of Sherwood. The racing was extremely close throughout the field and Pulling was doing a nice job to defend from her teammates who ran directly behind. Bustamante was also running in the same DRS train and the Elite Motorsport driver was just a quarter of a second behind Yuanpu Cui at the end of lap three.

Alex Ninovic was keen to find a way past Pulling and after some good resistance, the Australian driver moved into eighth position at turn one on lap six. Just five seconds covered positions five to fifteen at this stage with Bustamante targeting another personal best result to end the weekend. Pulling remained just half a second behind Ninovic at the halfway point of the race with Gianmarco Pradel also within DRS range in tenth.

Bustamante’s pace remained strong and by lap nine, she had pulled clear of Sherwood with the Xcel Motorsport driver now outside of DRS range. This allowed her to focus forward on making a move on Cui and on lap ten, the Elite Motorsport driver made her move. Bustamante was now up to 13^th, however Cui and Sherwood now both had DRS as the drivers started lap 11.

Both drivers were able to make their way through with Bustamante down to 15^th, however Sherwood was then assessed a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits. Two laps later, the battle between Sherwood and Cui intensified up ahead and after Cui went off-track, Bustamante reclaimed 14^th position.

The Elite Motorsport driver remained in this position to the chequered flag and as she remained within five seconds of Sherwood, she passed the Xcel Motorsport driver in the final classification to score her second 13^th place finish of the weekend.

Meanwhile, Pulling continued to battle hard in the closing stages and successfully resisted the challenge of Pradel to end the event in ninth position. It was a consistent weekend for the reigning F1 Academy champion who scored a trio of top-10 finishes at the Hungaroring.

Bustamante took another step forward in race pace and both drivers will now be looking forward to returning to the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit on the weekend of 2^nd/3^rd August.