David Pittard topped a Michelin Ginetta GT4 Supercup qualifying session for the first time with top spot during the penultimate meeting of the season at Silverstone.
In characteristic fashion around the short national layout at the home of British motorsport, the session proved to be extremely close with the top twelve split by less than a second in the final classification.
Championship leader Charlie Robertson was the early pace-setter in the twenty minute session, but Pittard flew to the top by nearly a quarter of a second with around five minutes to go.
Robertson closed to within two tenths with his next lap, but his challenge was halted when he was shown the black flag for exceeding track limits, forcing him into the pits with a couple of minutes left.
“I never expected to see a 58.346s, I must admit, so I’m absolutely buzzing and there was an explosion of emotion once pole was secure and I was out of the car,” said Pittard. “It’s quite difficult to pass around here so I couldn’t have taken pole at a better place.”
The only front-runners on track late on were Jamie Orton and Andrew Watson, and it proved to be a worthwhile exercise as they moved up to second and third respectively late on.
Robertson ended up fourth, with his chief championship rival Carl Breeze next up in fifth ahead of Tom Oliphant, Carl Boardley, Luke Davenport and Will Burns.
Renault UK Clio Cup front-runner Josh Cook emerged as the fastest of the five debutants this weekend in tenth, with the next best newcomers Aleksander Schjerpen and Will Moore in thirteenth and fourteenth respectively behind Tom Howard and Dan Norris-Jones.
Behind Reece Somerfield were the two runners in the championship’s new amateur class, Paul McNeilly and David Pattison, while completing the grid is Fraser Robertson in his G50.
The field will line up in that order for the opening race of the weekend, which takes place at 09.45 tomorrow morning.
