Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series championship leader Jordan King put himself in the driving seat for the title with two pole positions for the final trio of races at the Nurburgring in Germany, beating off his main championship rivals to the top spot.
The Carlin driver – who leads the championship by three points heading into the final meeting – stormed to what could prove a hugely important pair of pole positions at the famous German venue, beating his closest title rival Will Buller by just 0.112s.
King had to work for his bragging rights in the 30-minute session however, Fortec‘s Buller not giving up without a fight as he ended the intial half of the session at the head of the times, leaving King with it all to do in the final phase after the field bolted on a new set of tyres.
But Warwickshire’s King, who had topped the day’s pair of practice sessions earlier in the day, then struck back in style with a lap of 1m49.905s which was enough to grab the pole position, as well as a cruical psychological advantage heading into the weekend’s three races, his next lap also good enough to snatch pole for race three on Sunday after lapping only four hundredths of a second slower than his best.
Buller joins him on the front row for races one and three to set up an eye-watering conclusion to the season in the Eifel Mountains, while the third driver still in mathematical contention, Antonio Giovinazzi, secured third on the grid for both races, the Double R contender lying 21 points behind King in the standings.
King’s Carlin team-mates were next up, Nicholas Latifi securing fourth ahead of Jann Mardenborough for race one while their positions will be reversed for race two based on second-best times. They remain in a big squabble for fourth place in the championship, that place being held by Brazilian Felipe Guimaraes, the Fortec driver qualifying sixth on the grid.
Australian Spike Goddard returns to the series and qualified an impressive seventh for the two full-points races driving a Nissan-powered Threebond with T-Sport Dallara, beating Double R duo Tatiana Calderon and Sean Gelael, while the top 10 was rounded out by series newcomer Alfonso Celis, also racing a Double R Dallara-Mercedes.
National class leader Sun Zheng‘s fate was already sealed as his nearest challenger, Ed Jones, is not present this weekend in Germany, meaning that the CF Racing driver has been crowned National class champion before turning a wheel.
