With one race meeting in the books after a gruelling five month lay off due to COVID-19, the British F4 Championship returned to Brands Hatch for rounds four, five and six around the longer classic GP layout, after the organisers decided to use the traditional longer circuit at this point of the season instead of the winter due to the lack of light in the darker months.
But, as the lights went out at the end of the pit lane, it was the three Carlins of championship leader Zak O’Sullivan, Christian Mansell and Mathias Zagazeta that left on their out laps to get the 20 minute session underway.
The first competitive laps were coming in, and unsurprisingly it was Fortec Motorsport‘s Luke Browning that set the early benchmark of 1:32.847 to top the timesheets early on, less than one tenth ahead of his impressive rookie team mate, Rafael Villagomez.
Alex Connor then dropped down into the 1:29’s with a 1:29.332 before Browning and his other team mater Roberto Faria dropped even further into the 1:28’s.
At the half way stage in the session however, it was Arden Motorsport‘s Connor that wrestled the top spot back, closely followed by O’Sullivan and Argenti Motorsport‘s Casper Stevenson.
Race two victor from last weekend at Donington Park, O’Sullivan then went fastest with a 1:27.506 before Connor again came back at him to regain provisional pole. The second year driver having a solid start to the season after taking the opening win of the season last weekend.
Further down the field, the Fortec’s didn’t appear to have the same one lap pace as the had at Donington last weekend, with Faria, Browning and Villagomez down in fourth, ninth and fourteenth respectively. Christian Mansell reinforced his promise from last week with a strong showing in fifth place, albeit a full six tenths away from his team mate, O’Sullivan.
And at the session’s end it was Carlin’s Zak O’Sullivan that continues his impressive start to the championship to take pole position for race one this afternoon, ahead of Alex Connor and Luke Browning, with Abbi Pulling putting in a storming time at the death for fourth place.
Qualifying Classification:
| 1 | Zak O’Sullivan | Carlin | 1:27.255 |
| 2 | Alex Connor | Arden Motorsport | 1:27.385 |
| 3 | Luke Browning | Fortec Motorsport | 1:27.553 |
| 4 | Abbi Pulling | JHR Developments | 1:27.629 |
| 5 | Casper Stevenson | Argenti Motorsport | 1:27.655 |
| 6 | Nico Pino | Argenti Motorsport | 1:27.684 |
| 7 | Roberto Faria | Fortec Motorsport | 1:27.720 |
| 8 | Christian Mansell | Carlin | 1:27.870 |
| 9 | Roman Bilinski | Arden Motorsport | 1:27.926 |
| 10 | Mathias Zagazeta | Carlin | 1:28.000 |
| 11 | Frederick Lubin | Arden Motorsport | 1:28.180 |
| 12 | Rafael Villagomez | Fortec Motorsport | 1:28.183 |
| 13 | Nathanael Hodgkiss | JHR Developments | 1:28.260 |
| 14 | Reema Juffali | Argenti Motorsport | 1:28.638 |
