Alice Powell made her mark as early as qualifying for the day’s two F3 Cup races at Oulton Park by taking pole position by over a second in an eventful session.
Henry Chart started the session off strongly by setting the pace on the drivers’ first lap out of the pit, but former GP3 racer Powell then showed the way on her second lap around the Cheshire circuit to move to the top of the times.
On her next the lap, the Enigma Motorsport driver lowered the time further to dip under the 1m32s barrier, a second ahead of Chart in a tightly-bunched second place battle.
That battle then swung the way of James Cross at the halfway stage, the AW Tracksport man leaping ahead of Chart for that front row slot alongside Powell, eight tenths back from the lady racer.
That gap then grew to an alarming 1.3s as Powell completed the job with one last flying lap that dipped her to a 1m32.529, securing pole position for her first race.
Cross joins her on the front row, Chart qualifying third ahead of Alex Craven and Mark Harrison, Olly Rae the top Trophy class driver in sixth.
third-placed Chart was the only man that challenged Powell with five minutes to go, setting a quickest time overall in the first sector, but he was then involved in a accident with Tony Bishop that left the pair of Dallaras looking very worse for wear with front end damage, Chart’s more serious with broken left-front suspension.
In the carnage, five cars in fact came back to the pits not on their own accord, Olly Rae, Neil Harrison and Robbie Watts also casualties from the session.
