Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Deagen Fairclough took two pole positions by the slimmest of margins for the final round of the British Formula 4 season.
The Hitech GP driver, who has already been crowned champion, spent most of qualifying at the top of the times but ended it with just 0.001 seconds in hand over team-mate Reza Seewooruthun.
Fairclough set the pace early on, and was still top of the order when the first red flag stoppage of the day was caused by an incident for Fortec Motorsports’ Alex Berg.
The session resumed a few minutes later, and the field gradually returned to the track.
In the second part of qualifying Seewooruthun briefly held top spot. He jumped to first place with a 1m24.226s. But an improvement on Fairclough’s next lap meant provisional pole returned to this year’s dominant driver by the smallest recordable margin.
Just a few seconds later, red flags waved again and since there was less than a minute on the clock the session was ended and pole was secured for Fairclough.
The gap between third and fourth was even closer than that between first and second. JHR Developments’ Leo Robinson and Rodin’s James Higgins both set 1m24.394s, and since Robinson set the laptime first it meant he will start ahead for race three.
Rodin’s Alex Ninovic was fifth fastest, ahead of Chris Dittmann Racing’s Bart Harrison and team-mate Jack Sherwood. Completing the top 10 were Xcel Motorsport’s Zack Scoular, Virtuosi Racing’s Martin Molnar and Rodin’s Abbi Pulling.
The top of the order remained the same when it came to the second-best laptimes that set the race one grid, with Fairclough claiming top spot by 0.088s. Ninovic will have more work to do, since he will start seventh behind Sherwood and Harrison.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Deagen Fairclough Hitech GP 1m24.283s
2 Reza Seewooruthun Hitech GP +0.088s
3 Leo Robinson JHR Developments +0.130s
4 James Higgins Rodin Motorsport +0.159s
5 Jack Sherwood Rodin Motorsport +0.454s
6 Bart Harrison Chris Dittmann Racing +0.478s
7 Alex Ninovic Rodin Motorsport +0.533s
8 Zack Scoular Xcel Motorsport +0.552s
9 Abbi Pulling Rodin Motorsport +0.698s
10 Martin Molnar Virtuosi Racing +0.802s
Race 3 grid
1 Fairclough 1m24.225s
2 Seewooruthun +0.001s
3 Robinson +0.169s
4 Higgins +0.169s
5 Ninovic +0.305s
6 Harrison +0.419s
7 Sherwood +0.507s
8 Scoular +0.546s
9 Molnar +0.559s
10 Pulling +0.712s