The HHC Motorsport team secured a one-two in qualifying for race 1 after Harrison Newey claimed pole ahead of team mate Will Palmer. The strong showing will allow Palmer to build on his championship lead.
All the cars wanted to get early laps in and headed out as the session got under way. Ciaren Haggerty managed to set the early pace, being the first driver into the 1 minute 24 second mark. However; five minutes into the session Newey blitz the Scots time by 0.6 seconds faster to go top. Jordan Albert also improved but failed to beat Newey’s time.
Soon after the times started to fall with Albert going top ahead of an improving Palmer. As the times fell, HHC temporarily had the top 3 locked out with Sisa Ngebulana going third. By the halfway point of the session, Newey lead from Palmer, Jack Bartholomew, Ngebulana and Albert.
Newey had a tight grip on the session lead with only eight minutes remaining. As it turned out the cars had taken the best out of their tyres and few improvements were seen on track. However; quick times at the end from Zubair Hoque saw him claim ninth, before improving to go sixth as he was close to team mate Albert, who also managed to pull out another quick lap.
Just as the session drew to a close it was Rodrigo Fonseca managed to put his car in a promising position for the race after a clear lap. This meant that Newey took pole ahead of Palmer, Albert, Bartholomew and Fonseca.
Rockingham Race 1 Qualifying Times
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