Matheus Leist came out of qualifying with his first MSA Formula pole of the year. Having proven his pace during practice, the Brazilian made the most of the cool track to dominate for most of the session. He’ll be on pole for race one, while he lines up second for race three.
Lando Norris had gone into the session as favourite after leading by a quarter of a second in practice. However there was a slight delay as a barrier needed to be fixed from the previous BTCC session.
It was Leist who took an early lead as Dan Ticktum lined up behind him. Many of the main contenders did not show their hand in the early part of the session, meaning their true pace was concealed from many.
This was most notable with the Carlin drivers as Norris and Colton Herta abandoned their early laps choosing instead to drive through the pits.
Ultimately it meant that other drivers could climb up the board. With 12 minutes to go Toby Sowery impressed to go top pushing Leist down, before the Brazilian responded to better the benchmark.
Many of the front runners, including Leist and Norris would pit before the end, with Norris choosing to abandon his final run to save a set of tyres. It worked as no-one else improved, meaning he lines up second for race one and with reverse grid times, lines up on pole for race three.
Others weren’t able to capitalise as much as they would have wanted with Herta staying out but only managing to improve to third in front of Sowery.
On the third row was Ricky Collard who will be disappointed not to start ahead of Norris while, Ticktum lines up in sixth. Most importantly, ahead of his main championship rival, Sennan Fielding.
