Edward Pearson enjoyed a successful end to his first weekend in the GB3 Championship partnered by the BRDC after picking up his maiden single-seater podium at Oulton Park.
Edward went into the weekend hoping to impress on his series debut, having joined leading outfit Fortec Motorsports on the back of a programme in British F4 last year.
Two busy days of testing at the Cheshire circuit suggested that a highly competitive weekend lay ahead for the teenager, and that proved to be the case in the first qualifying session of the campaign.
Setting a time quicker than he had been able to go during the pre-event test, Edward set a best lap that was little over a second away from pole, although the close nature of the lap times meant he would line up in 23rd on the grid for race one on Saturday afternoon.
Holding station when the opening race kicked off, Edward was soon making up places and was able to work his way up to 16th place when the race was halted early after two of his rivals clashed at the final corner, leaving a car stuck in a dangerous position on the edge of the circuit.
Race two of the weekend would take place on Easter Monday, with vastly different weather conditions greeting the drivers after the arrival of rain as the cars lined up on the grid.
Edward would choose to pit for wet tyres at the end of the first green flag lap although the gamble didn’t pay off when the decision was taken to delay the start - allowing the remainder of the pack to also switch from dry tyres.
It would however prove to be a blessing in disguise, with the delay providing the team with the chance to fix an issue with the steering on his car, although he was forced to take the start from the pitlane once the rest of the field had gone by on lap one.
Despite that, a fine recovery saw Edward make his way through to 18th place by the finish, with his chance to shine coming in race three - where a full reverse grid left him third on the grid for the start.
Although he drop to fifth when the lights went out, Edward was able to move back into fourth spot before the safety car was deployed to allow a number of cars to be recovered from the side of the circuit.
The action resumed on lap five and a fine move heading down Cascades allowed Edward to slide down the inside of Noah Ping to reclaim third spot.
It would prove to be the key moment of the race for the talented teenager when another incident saw the race go back under caution, with the safety car forced to remain on track until the chequered flag dropped.
It meant Edward was unable to launch a move on the drivers ahead and had to settle for third place, with the weekend results leaving him 15th in the standings ahead of round two at Silverstone next month.
"It’s been a tough weekend to start the season, as I feel we’ve got a lot more pace than the results across the three races show on paper," he said. "I didn’t have the strongest showing in qualifying and even though we were only a second from pole, the times are so close that it meant I had a lot to do at one of the hardest circuits to overtake.
"I was pleased to be able to make up places in both race one and race two, and I knew the reverse grid gave us our best chance of a strong result. When we first went out I thought it had dried and we were in trouble but then during the first safety car the rain started to come down and I felt we’d be okay.
"I kept my head down on the restart and grabbed third place before the safety car came back out and whilst that meant it wasn’t the most exciting race, I’ll certainly take the result. I think there is a lot we can learn from this weekend, and we’ll look to take that into the weekends to come."
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