At the end of the Friday tests at Silverstone, it is Lando Norris who goes into qualifying as odds on favourite, after topping the times with a 56.373 around the National Circuit. Norris goes into the weekend confident as he looks to defend his 17 point MSA Formula championship lead.
The Carlin driver has collected seven poles this year, including those set as second fastest times for race three. This puts Norris in the prosperous position of having collected more poles than any other driver and further backing up his position as championship leader.
As for the track: the surface started to warm up after extensive running from the cars, allowing them to show their pace at the end of the day, with Norris only set his fastest time with 11 minutes remaining in the final session.
Behind him in the overall timings was his championship rival Ricky Collard, 0.226 seconds slower than the 15 year old. Having led for most of the season, Collard will be looking to regain his position at the top of the standings with 2 weekends remaining.
American Colton Herta has had a strong end to the season having picked up two poles, three wins and six podiums in the last three weekends. As a result, he’s the most likely contender to disrupt the top two and should not be ruled out as he looks to grab third place in the standings.
However; the driver defending that third will be Dan Ticktum. He topped the first practice, but was unable to improve in the second, putting him fourth overall. Ticktum will be confident knowing that he could wrap up the rookie title this weekend, but will need to compete with the on form Herta and Sennan Fielding, who finished the test in seventh, in order to take third overall.
Behind the top four, Toby Sowery continues his high performance as he competes in his first back to back MSA weekend of the year. While in sixth was the Brazilian Matheus Leist, who will hoping to return to the form that saw him collect five podiums in the opening four weekends.
