Jack Harvey grabbed both pole spots on offer resisting Alex Lynn (Photo Credit: Chris Gurton Photography)
Racing Steps Foundation driver Jack Harvey dominated qualifying for the Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series races at Rockingham, taking both pole positions on offer for the fourth weekend of the championship.
Harvey took position just ten minutes into the session, lapping the 2.06 mile International Super Sportscar Long Circuit in 1:18.384. As the track condition improved on a atypically cold day in June Harvey improved, lopping sixth tenths off his best to move more than half a second clear of Pietro Fantin who slotted into second behind his Carlin stablemate on 1:18.164.
The halfway point in the 30 minutes session was a lull in proceedings as the entire field cycled through the pitlane for a fresh set of Cooper tyres for the second half of the session.
Much like the first part of the session the action – in terms of position improvements at the head of the order – was confined to a frantic few minutes.
Having run into the top five in the first part of the session Alex Lynn improved up to second place behind Harvey, who in turn took a further three-thousandths off his pole time. As well as Lynn, championship leader Carlos Sainz Jr., Jazeman Jaafar and Harry Ticnknell moved under the 1:18 mark.
Fortec Motorsport driver Lynn was after position, lapping to just five-thousandths down on Harvey, but that was as close as the battle for pole position got, Harvey sealing his second double pole of the season with three minutes of the session remaining to repeat his Oulton Park performance from the opening weekend of the season.
Harvey's earlier time survived to be the best second fastest time, giving him pole for the first of the weekend's three race. Lynn and Jaafar clinched second and third respectively for both races but behind them the punishments for exceeding tracks limits shuffled the order.
Sainz and Tincknell will start the final F3 race of the weekend from fourth and fifth, but will have to fight their way through the field in the opener together with Fortec pilot Pipo Derani. Their demotion gave Pietro Fantin and Felix Serralles fourth and fifth for this afternoon's race, though they will start from seventh and eighth on second fastest times behind Hannes van Asseldonk who will start both races from sixth place, despite having his fastest time chalked off for track limit transgressions.
Spike Goddard will start both races from pole in the National Class, outpacing Duvashen Padayachee by more than a second.
