Oscar Piastri will be pleased to have held off his rivals for the Silverstone qualifying session as he aims to close the gap on Jamie Caroline in the F4 British Championship. The TRS Arden driver led from almost start to finish, with the team locking out the front row.
With five drivers still within mathematical chance of claiming the title, it was vital for the chasing pack to get the edge on Caroline, who, after struggling throughout, will only start sixth.
Rookie mistakes are common and it wasn’t long before Harry Dyson ran off at Brooklands bringing out a red flag with Piastri having set the early pace. The Australian was straight back on it in the second half, with Oliver York pushing him for the majority of the session.
York is no longer in the championship hunt, so would provide a real threat for Piastri as he has nothing to lose come race one. Sadly for the Fortec Motorsport driver he could not take the overall front row as Alex Quinn put in a storming final lap to jump up to second overall.
Instead, York would be joined by Hampus Ericsson as the Ford F4 Challenge Cup racer will hope for a perfect weekend in his attack at the secondary crown this season. Fellow Swede Linus Lundqvist had been in the top three for the first half but fell back towards the end to only manage fifteenth.
The two-by-two of teams continued on the third row with Logan Sargeant crucially outqualifying teammate Caroline as he too will hope to close the points gap before Brands Hatch. Rounding out the top eight was Karl Massaad and Johnathan Hoggard who continues to impress in his first few rounds.
Caroline though will feel confident that he only needs to score 0.5 points more than his Piastri to secure the title at the end of Sunday.
