Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Elite Motorsport’s Isaac Phelps secured his first poles since the opening round of the season by being comfortably quickest in GB4 qualifying on Brands Hatch’s Grand Prix layout.
Phelps posted a late flying lap of 1m24.108s which was over half a second quicker than his team-mate Ary Bansal’s best effort – taking pole for race one in the process.
His previous best lap was good enough to also grab pole for race two by 0.214 seconds, while Hillspeeed’s championship leader Daniel Guinchard denied Elite a top-three lockout by qualifying third and second for the first two races.
Guinchard led during the early stages of the 15-minute session with a 1m26.759s before Douglas Motorsport’s returnee Luke Hilton lapped 0.447s faster.
Arden’s Leon Wilson was next to lead the way with a 1m26.169s, and Guinchard soon reclaimed top spot by 0.8s. Bansal edged ahead with a 1m25.298s, and Phelps then lowered the pace by 0.078s.
Wilson again went quickest with a 1m24.840s, only for Phelps to respond with an even faster 1m24.511s. It was a lap which would have been good enough to the top the session, but he then improved by a further 0.4s with two minutes remaining to make sure of two poles.
Guinchard rose five places to second in the closing stages, but was demoted to third when Bansal edged him by 0.039s. Kattoulas also moved ahead of Guinchard, who responded to reclaim third before the chequered flag.
Hilton gained three spots to fifth with a late effort, and Wilson was just 0.027s further behind.
Having initially sat ahead of the pair, KMR Sport’s Alex O’Grady was eventually shuffled down to eighth behind Douglas’s Dayton Coulthard.
Guinchard pipped Bansal and Kattoulas to a front row starting spot for race two based on second-best laptimes, while Wilson took fifth ahead of Hilton, O’Grady and Hillspeed’s Leandro Juncos.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Isaac Phelps Elite Motorsport 1m24.108s
2 Ary Bansal Elite Motorsport +0.511s
3 Daniel Guinchard Hillspeed +0.550s
4 Alex Kattoulas Elite Motorsport +0.596s
5 Luke Hilton Douglas Motosport +0.705s
6 Leon Wilson Arden +0.732s
7 Dayton Coulthard Douglas Motorsport +0.869s
8 Alex O’Grady KMR Sport +0.982s
9 Thomas Ingram Hill Fortec Motorsports +1.069
10 Leandro Juncos Hillspeed +1.090s
Race 2 grid
1 Phelps 1m24.511s
2 Guinchard +0.214s
3 Bansal +0.277s
4 Kattoulas +0.333s
5 Wilson +0.370s
6 Hilton +0.531s
7 O’Grady +0.623s
8 Juncos +0.798s
9 Ingram Hill +0.968s
10 Coulthard +1.003s