It was a first pole position for Carlin driver Enaam Ahmed after a dramatic qualifying session at Snetterton. The BRDC British F3 Autumn Trophy saw the top ten qualify within 0.7 seconds, as the session went down to the final lap.
Eleven of the drivers headed straight onto the track as the grid looked for space on the 2.99 mile circuit. It was Ahmed who took the early advantage, leading by half way.
Dan Ticktum was one of the pre-season favourites and was the first guy to genuinely challenge Ahmed. The two swapped times for pole as Marcus Armstrong gradually worked his way to the front.
There was no time to rest though as the session continued with James Pull and Callan O’Keeffe also making their way to the front. Ticktum and Ahmed continued to impress as the Double R Racing driver started to pull away slightly.
Joey Mawson had been virtually invisible in the opening half of the session, but was proving himself in the second half by going third before taking pole with two minutes to go.
Not one to be beat though, Ahmed put in a final lap to become the first driver to drop below 1 minute 44 seconds. His time of 1min 43.956 proved to be just enough as Ticktum lined up second, thus pushing Mawson to third.
Another driver who put in a vital late lap was Tarun Reddy, who went fourth, with O’Keeffe and Pull behind. All of this pushed back Cameron Das to seventh as Armstrong had to settle for eighth despite outstanding pace on Friday.