After a breathless qualifying session, HHC Motorsports contender Harri Newey claims his second race one pole of the year in a qualifying that saw the benchmark consistently drop with the track continuing to improve.
The session had started with overcast conditions with the lap times slower than they had been on Thursday. No driver managed to drop below the 1 minute 30 second mark as Newey took the initiative in the final stages to secure pole and a clear view of the track in front.
The session had started slowly as the cars got use to the new track conditions. It was Ciaran Haggerty who dominated the early part of qualifying with the young British driver determined to make up for a mediocre Thursday.
However; the session did not plan out as he expected. After initially dropping down the order, he made a fight back later on to be part of the group fighting for fourth in the closing stages. A poor final lap saw him drop to tenth in the final standings.
As the session drew on, it was Newey who joined Tom Jackson as the front runners. With other unable to catch Newey, Will Palmer joined his team mate at the front to make a three way scrap for pole in the final minutes. Palmer and Jackson would both fail to beat the polesitter’s penultimate lap allowing Newey to take the honours.
Behind the top three was Omar Ismail, who made a last gasp effort to move up the leaderboard. He’d not featured for much of the session, but made the most of the drying track to push down other drivers who’d been running near the front for most of the session.
This had also been the case for the two behind. Ameya Vaidyanathan who had gone second before his time was disallowed, starts fifth, with Chris Mealin starting sixth.
Behind them was the drivers who’d lost out in the battle for fourth. In seventh was Jack Lang, who’d been in the battle for pole early on. Having set the fastest lap, he slowly moved backwards, but will hoping for a good race having proven he has the pace. This was also the case for eighth place Jack Bartholomew who was unable to keep up in the final stages.
Having struggled for much of the session, Rodrigo Fonseca managed to take ninth, ahead of the dropping Haggerty.
