Canadian driver Devlin DeFrancesco collected his first pole position of the year in a last lap effort that saw him take the top spot by three hundredths of a second. The pole sees him continue his form from last weekend in which he collected his first F4 British Championship win.
The early half of the session saw six drivers swap positions at the front, with the Carlin drivers being joined by the TRS Arden’s of Rafa Martins and the inexperienced Ayrton Simmons around the Oulton Park circuit.
Despite the Arden’s efforts, it was their rivals that had the advantage with James Pull the first top set a number of competitive laps. As time ticked on, Jamie Caroline joined the action at the front.
Although he did not feature for the opening half of the session, Alex Quinn proved to be a major player as he remained on top with an exceptional lap towards the end. The Carlin’s weren’t to be beaten though as DeFrancesco outpaced the rookie on his final lap.
He was joined on the front row by team mate Petru Florescu. The Romanian and the pole sitter had been the two drivers to beat before Quinn joined the battle, with Florescu setting his best time on the final lap, like his team-mate.
Behind them, the unlucky Caroline will be hoping for a clean weekend from fourth, alongside Quinn. While the remaining Carlin’s of Max Fewtrell and Pull fill out the third row, both will need to find their early season form after a disappointing Thruxton round. The fourth row will thus be filled by the competitive Arden’s from earlier, with Simmons beating Martins.
An early off for Luis Leeds saw him drop down the order quickly. Unable to improve his time, he faced the fact that he’ll have to start the race from the back row of the grid. He wasn’t the only one to come to a halt during the session as Billy Monger was unable to improve.
It was Monger’s team-mate Sennan Fielding who surprised many by coming in early so that he could reset and achieve a flying final lap. Sadly, he couldn’t make it work, and had dropped to fourteenth on the grid at the end of the session.
