Just like at the race meeting in June, Johnathan Hoggard has taken pole position for both races one and three around the Donington Park Grand Prix circuit ahead of the start of racing action for the 2019 BRDC British Formula 3 season finale.
The Fortec Motorsports driver claimed his sixth and seventh poles respectively, and in doing so, he earned the 2019 Jack Cavill Pole Position Cup and the £1,000 prize that goes with it.
His ultimate fastest laptime of a 1:24.401 was 0.291 seconds quicker than Douglas Motorsport’s star Kiern Jewiss, who will line second on the grid for both races one and three, with Jewiss’s team-mate Ulysse De Pauw just over a tenth further behind and will start race one from third.
Behind the top three, third in the championship Ayrton Simmons produced the goods to be only 35-thousandths of a second behind the Belgian with the second Fortec of Manuel Maldonado elevating himself to fifth with a late improvement to be just ahead of points leader Clement Novalak, who will start race one from sixth on the grid.
Race three will see a sense of deja vu as the top five positions on the starting grid will be the same as race one as Hoggard will start on pole ahead of Jewiss, De Pauw, Simmons and Maldonado. But if Novalak cannot get the title done after race two, the nerves may start to build as he will only start race three from ninth position. Ahead of him, Neil Verhagen will line up sixth, closely followed by Sasakorn Chaimongkol and Kaylen Frederick with Novalak and Hampus Ericsson completing the top ten.
Whatever happens now, Hoggard has given himself the perfect platform to build on for the rest of the weekend as he seeks to put Novalak under the most intense pressure for the challenges that lie ahead.
Qualifying results after round eight (Donington Park):
POS | Driver Name | NAT | Team | Laptime |
1 | Johnathan Hoggard | GBR | Fortec Motorsports | 1:24.401 |
2 | Kiern Jewiss | GBR | Douglas Motorsport | + 0.291 s |
3 | Ulysse De Pauw | BEL | Douglas Motorsport | + 0.401 s |
4 | Ayrton Simmons | GBR | Chris Dittmann Racing | + 0.436 s |
5 | Manuel Maldonado | VEN | Fortec Motorsports | + 0.442 s |
6 | Clement Novalak | GBR | Carlin | + 0.497 s |
7 | Sasakorn Chaimongkol | THA | Hillspeed | + 0.586 s |
8 | Kaylen Frederick | USA | Carlin | + 0.679 s |
9 | Neil Verhagen | USA | Double R Racing | + 0.688 s |
10 | Hampus Ericsson | SWE | Double R Racing | + 0.844 s |
11 | Lucas Petersson | SWE | Carlin | + 0.856 s |
12 | Pavan Ravishankar | SIN | Double R Racing | + 1.016 s |
13 | Kris Wright | USA | Fortec Motorsports | + 1.114 s |
14 | Nazim Azman | MAS | Chris Dittmann Racing | + 1.335 s |
15 | Josh Mason | GBR | Lanan Racing | + 1.370 s |