In BRDC Formula 4, champion Will Palmer takes yet another pole in the final qualifying of the year. The British driver seemed fairly unchallenged in the second half of the session. However; the cameras were all on the runner-up fight.
It was a good qualifying for Fernando Urrutia who claimed his best start of the season, lining up on the front row, 0.22 seconds off Palmer. He hadn’t featured much at the start of the session but held on after the red flag.
Four drivers could realistically claim the runners up spot and it was the two outside hopefuls that proved to be the quickest, as fifth placed Rodrigo Fonseca won the inter-qualifying battle lining up third.
Meanwhile a poor qualifying for Harri Newey and Tom Jackson sees them line up in tenth and fifteenth respectively. Neither challenged the top times and with their positions under threat, it’s likely their going to need a strong race.
South African driver Sisa Ngebulana ended his final qualifying of the year on a flat bed truck after running into the gravel at Paddock. The session was brought to a halt with Ngebulana ruing his missed chance to improve. He had been third before the incident happened.
Into the final seven minutes of qualifying, it was Palmer who was sitting pretty on top of the timing sheets, but all eyes were on the four drivers fight for second in the championship. It seemed to be going all wrong for the two at the front with Newey in tenth and Jackson fifteenth.
Fonseca leaped up to third with two minutes to go. The time allowed him to move ahead of Ciaran Haggerty by a single place and set the championship up for a dramatic end of the season. While Palmer took a comfortable pole in front of Urrutia.
In fifth was Ngebulana who hung on from Jack Bartholomew, Jordan Albert and Jack Lang behind. All of which had looked strong at different points.
