Sandy Mitchell dominated the qualifying at Thruxton for MSA Formula, with his pole lap being 0.8 seconds quicker than his nearest competitor and being the only driver in the 1 minute 13 seconds. While Dan Ticktum had car troubles meaning he could not set a competitive lap.
Ricky Collard was first out on track as ten drivers all made their way onto the circuit. Lando Norris decided to come back into the pit lane after an instillation lap. Mitchell was the first to set a time with a 1:20.095, however; this was quickly beaten by Dan Baybutt on a 1;15.587 before he too was displaced by Petru Florescu.
As the session went on, it was Mitchell who managed to break into the 1 minute 14 second mark, before getting into the 1:13s a lap later. Meanwhile Norris, who had come back out of the pits managed to use the space to leap up to fifth and then go second.
As to further cement his dominance, Mitchell improved before pitting for new tyres. He had made the best use of the Ford Eco-Boost technology with his only mistake being in the pits; he stalled the car as he attempted to re-enter the track. Despite this problem he got going and continued to perform.
There were also problems for Ticktum. He had not set a lap time with 9 minutes left as the car had no power. He pitted a few times, but was told to continue setting laps as to help his poor qualifying performance. In the free air, Sennan Fielding leaped up to fourth with the cars making their way back to the pits.
There were few improvements towards the end of the session with Ticktum stuck in seventeenth place, out of the twenty runners. The only two improvements were from Mitchell, who set a 1:13.264 and Matheus Leist who managed to get his car up to third in the dying moments.
This meant that Mitchell is on pole ahead of Norris, Leist, Fielding and Collard. Polesitter Mitchell commented, saying it was; “Really amazing. I was quick here in testing and feeling confident. Being smooth helps me here.” Mitchell will also be on pole for race 3.
