Jonathan Hadfield led a close fought Ginetta Junior Championship qualifying session at Donington Park for his maiden pole position in the category.
The R&J Motorsport headed the 25 car field thanks to a best time of 1m 24.676s in the Leicestershire sunshine, heading team-mate Lewis Brown for the team’s first ever front row lock-out.
The session came down to a one lap shootout at the end, following a red flag with three minutes to go after a spin into the gravel at the final chicane for Cameron Roberts.
Into the stoppage Hadfield had provisional pole and held on to it in the last gap run to the chequered flag, though only just, with Brown improving his time to finish up five thousandths of a second shy of pole.
Brown headed a trio of JHR Developments drivers, with Billy Monger, Senna Proctor and Dan Zelos completing a top five remarkably separated by just 0.048s at the end of the session.
Dave Wooder was another to improve on the last lap, a time of 1m 24.7812s putting him as the top rookie in sixth overall ahead of HHC Motorsport pairing Sophia Floersch and Jamie Caroline, with Matt Chapman within three tenths of a second of pole in ninth.
A gaggle of rookies follow on the timesheets, a tenth of a second splitting reigning Scholarship winner Stuart Middleton, William Stacey, Will Tregurtha and Patrik Matthiesen from tenth to thirteenth. The red flag causer Roberts finished up fifteenth overall meanwhile behind Alex Day.
Full qualifying results can be found here.
