VRD Racing’s Nikita Bedrin holds a big championship lead as GB3’s run of European events brought the 2026 season to its midpoint at the Red Bull Ring last weekend.
Across eight races on the continent, Bedrin won four of them, and stood on the podium three further times. His run of form contrasts with the fortunes of the expected pre-season title challengers, with Rodin duo Maxim Rehm and Abbi Pulling and, in particular, Hitech’s Deagen Fairclough encountering frequent trouble.
Following his double win at the Silverstone season opener, Bedrin was second best to Pulling in the first race at Spa in May, as the 2024 F1 Academy champion made history as the first female driver to win a GB3 race, and from pole too.
Bedrin struck back in race two for his third win of the campaign, before the finale was cancelled amid heavy rain, and headed to the Hungaroring at the start of July with a decent 27-point lead over Rehm at the top of the standings.
There, a resurgent Fairclough, who was fighting back after three retirements from the opening four races, beat him in the opener. The Briton made a superb start from second on the grid to pass polesitter Martin Molnar on the first lap, and the race was controlled from there while Bedrin also demoted Molnar after a safety car restart to take second.
The championship leader struck back in the second contest, despite Fairclough again leading at Turn 1, only to suffer a fourth retirement of the year, with Rehm another retiree. Bedrin won again, ahead of Molnar and Xcel’s Lucas Fluxa.
Hungarian win has been sole bright moment for pre-season favourite Fairclough
Photo by: JEP
Yet more misfortune struck Fairclough in race three, as he was involved in an opening-corner collision that forced himself and Pulling into retirement. Elite’s Flynn Jackes was triumphant for the first time in his 52nd race start, clear of Xcel duo Fluxa and Rowan Campbell-Pilling. Bedrin, meanwhile, stormed from 12th on the reversed grid to fifth, opening a 68-point lead at the top.
Bedrin’s charge was strengthened yet further in Austria last weekend, as he established a new record GB3 weekend haul of 97 points, adding his fifth and sixth wins of the season, before an awesome charge from 12th to second in race three.
Molnar was on pole again for the first bout, but team-mate Rehm led much of the event with Bedrin ‘only’ qualifying third. As the Rodin duo went wheel to wheel on the opening lap, Bedrin moved into second and, when Rehm was awarded a track-limits penalty on the penultimate tour, the points leader was effectively handed the win. But wanting to earn it properly, Bedrin passed the German around the outside of Turn 6, taking victory ahead of Fluxa and Fairclough, as Rehm dropped to sixth.
The second contest was plagued by track-limits penalties, but Bedrin received none as he delivered an exhibition of pace and precision to lead the full contest from pole, finishing ahead of Fluxa, who took a fourth podium in a row with Rehm third.
Bedrin’s team-mate Patricio Gonzalez earned his first GB3 win in the finale, but Bedrin’s surge from 12th to second was the big talking point, while Arden’s Leon Wilson claimed a first podium in third. Retirements for Rehm, Pulling and Fairclough before half a lap had been completed mean Bedrin holds a colossal 106-point lead at the top of the standings, with 102 available on a full weekend.
The series returns to the UK at the start of August with another visit to Silverstone, before further events at Donington Park, Brands Hatch GP and Barcelona at the end of the year.
Bedrin with the number one board has become an increasingly familiar sight this year in GB3
Photo by: JEP
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– The Autosport.com Team
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