Colton Herta continued his dominant run at Snetterton by taking pole position for round 16 of the MSA Formula season to lead a Carlin one-two ahead of Lando Norris. He will also had the second best time, putting him on pole for round 18 as well.
Carlin and Double R Racing didn’t let their cars go out immediately, allowing them space on the 3 mile track, which allowed Enaam Ahmed to set the early pace with a 1m52.696s. Meanwhile a fuel pressure problem on the SWB Motorsport machine of Rafael Martins kept the Brazilian in the pits for the start at the session.
With 11 minutes to go, the cars started settling into their times with Herta going top, before he was pushed down by team mate Norris. Behind them at the half way stage was Norris’ championship rivals, Ricky Collard and Dan Ticktum.
Norris was the first driver to drop below the 1 minute 51 second mark, while Jack Butel, who had his session largely hindered with the car unable to shift down gears, would finally get out on track with just five minutes to go.
At the same time, Herta moved back to the top to establish the advantage over his Carlin team mate, with Collard remaining third, despite being another driver stuck in the pits with technical issues.
With three minutes to go and Collard unable to improve, Ticktum took the advantage to go third, but was still 0.7 seconds behind Herta the session leader.
There was few improvements towards the end of the session, with Herta taking pole ahead of Norris. While Ticktum and Collard lined up behind, allowing the championship fight to continue on track.
Sennan Fielding ended up fifth ahead of Matheus Leist, returning from his one off FIA European Formula 3 race and Petru Florescu in seventh, while Ahmed fell to eighth after a strong start to qualifying.
“Carlin gave me a great car all year… We did some testing and found areas to improve my performance” commented Herta, the pole sitter, going on to say the circuit “suits my driving style.”
