Romanian Petru Florescu hits back in his championship fight with pole position at Thruxton. The result sees him take his third and fourth pole of the year and continues his 2016 F4 British Championship reputation of being strong over a single lap, however, after Donington, he’ll have to prove he can maintain his pace in the race.
Jamie Caroline was the first to race out of the pits, but didn’t utilise his free track space, pitting after only a lap. Instead, the TRS Arden cars were the first to top the time sheets with competitive lap times.
Unsurprisingly, this didn’t last long as the Carlin’s naturally moved to the front with Max Fewtrell pulling into the pits after setting the fastest lap. It didn’t last though as team mate Florescu beat his benchmark a few seconds after the 16 year old had stopped.
A number of drivers decided to spend the first half of the session in the pits, not wanting to wear their tyres in the early stages. One of these runners; Alex Quinn, was quick to prove himself, going fourth, slotting in behind the Carlin trio.
Another driver who was determined to improve in the latter stages, was Sennan Fielding. After a few warm up laps, he managed to slot into third, demoting the Carlin driver Devlin DeFrancesco. He was unable to challenge Florescu though, still 0.228 seconds down.
Fielding was joined on the second row by team mate Billy Monger as the drivers set themselves up for a final run which saw Luis Leeds push his car beyond the limit, running wide into the final chicane, jumping over the grass and ruining two laps.
With his tyres going off, Fielding pulled into the pits with a few minutes to go, as DeFrancesco improved his time, putting him second. No improvements on the final lap allowed Florescu to take another pole position.
Behind the Romanian, DeFrancesco and Fewtrell completed a Carlin 1-2-3, as Fielding completed the second row. Monger would hold on to fifth as James Pull put in a few strong laps towards the end to go sixth in front of the top rookie Quinn. The top ten was completed by Zane Goddard and the disappointed Caroline and Leeds.
