Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Joel Granfors dominated qualifying to take pole position for races one and two at the second round of the GB3 Championship on Silverstone’s Grand Prix layout
The Fortec Motorsports driver set a 1m53.086s lap approaching the halfway stage which proved unbeatable, and a late effort of 1m53.121s ensured the Swede took a double pole.
Elite Motorsport’s Tom Lebbon will start from second in both races, with championship leader Luke Browning taking a pair of third-placed grid spots.
Granfors best lap initially put him one second clear of Chris Dittmann Racing’s McKenzy Cresswell in the 20-minute session.
Douglas Motorsport’s Max Esterson and JHR Development’s Matthew Rees moved up to second and third, albeit over half a second adrift, before Carlin’s Roberto Faria edged Esterson by 0.059s.
Browning then moved into second for Hitech GP with five minutes remaining, 0.4s behind Granfors, before Lebbon beat him by 0.1s.
Faria ended up fourth ahead of pre-event testing pacesetter James Hedley and Esterson. The latter took fourth for race two, his second-quickest lap shading Faria’s by 0.002s, with Hedley’s effort only 0.003s further behind.
Rees was seventh fastest overall ahead of Elite’s John Bennett, Cresswell and Carlin’s Callum Voisin.
Voisin’s team-mate Javier Sagrera was 11th, having a had a late laptime deleted for exceeding track limits, with Branden Lee Oxley 12th for CDR.
Arden’s David Morales was slowest of the runners in 20th, having been sidelined by illness in pre-event testing.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Joel Granfors Fortec 1m53.086s
2 Tom Lebbon Elite +0.325s
3 Luke Browning Hitech +0.437s
4 Roberto Faria Carlin +0.528s
5 James Hedley Elite +0.528s
6 Max Esterson Douglas +0.587s
7 Matthew Rees JHR +0.611s
8 John Bennett Elite +0.788s
9 McKenzy Cresswell Chris Dittmann Racing +0.841s
10 Callum Voisin Carlin +0.852s
Race 2 grid
1 Granfors 1m53.121s
2 Lebbon +0.352s
3 Browning +0.560s
4 Esterson +0.719s
5 Faria +0.721s
6 Hedley +0.724s
7 Voisin +0.984s
8 Cresswell +1.005s
9 Bennett +1.025s
10 Javier Sagrera Carlin +1.131s