Photo: Mat Acton
Ary Bansal prevailed in a tight scrap with his Elite Motorsport team-mate Isaac Phelps to score a double pole in GB4 qualifying at Snetterton.
Phelps snatched provisional pole for race one in the final seconds of the 15-minute session, only to be denied moments later by Bansal who ended up quickest by just 0.012 seconds. The pair will also share the front row for race two, having been separated by 0.048s based on their second-best laps.
Fox Motorsport’s Holly Miall led the way initially before drivers started to post representative times. Bansal soon dipped 0.2s under Phelp’s pre-event testing pace by posting a 1m47.998s to briefly lead an all-Elite top three.
KMR Sport’s Alex O’Grady briefly broke that strangehold by moving into second, while Bansal improved on his next two laps to cement his place at the top with a new best of 1m47.051s.
Hillspeed’s points leader Daniel Guinchard and Douglas Motorsport’s Luke Hilton climbed to second and third, albeit over a quarter of a second behind Bansal.
Phelps reduced his team-mate’s advantage to 0.048s, and Leandro Juncos set the fastest final sector so far to leap up six places to third, displacing Guinchard in the process.
With just five seconds left on the clock, Phelps produced a 1m46.950s to go quickest. But just behind him, Bansal went faster still with a 1m46.938s to secure a maiden pole.
Juncos and Guinchard maintained an all-Hillspeed second row for race one, with Hilton fifth ahead of O’Grady. Having sat second early on, Elite’s Alex Kattoulas slipped to seventh, his final effort leaving him just 0.003s shy of O’Grady.
Guinchard and Hilton are both set to start one place higher for race two, with Kattoulas and O’Grady on the third row. Juncos, meanwhile only took 10th for that contest.
Fortec’s Jack Taylor provisionally took reversed-grid pole for race three by setting the 12th fastest time in qualifying. Pace Performance’s Flame Airikkala was the quickest of the two debutants, qualifying 20th and two places higher than Arden’s car racing rookie Dudley Ruddock.
Qualifying results
Race 1 grid
1 Ary Bansal Elite Motorsport 1m46.938s
2 Isaac Phelps Elite Motorsport +0.012s
3 Leandro Juncos Hillspeed +0.239s
4 Daniel Guinchard Hillspeed +0.331s
5 Luke Hilton Douglas Motorsport +0.397s
6 Alex O’Grady KMR Sport +0.644s
7 Alex Kattoulas Elite Motorsport +0.647s
8 Thomas Ingram Hill Fortec Motorsports + 0.725s
9 Enzo Hallman Douglas Motorsport +0.867s
10 Leon Wilson Arden +0.927s
Race 2 grid
1 Bansal 1m47.051s
2 Phelps +0.048s
3 Guinchard +0.228s
4 Hilton +0.320s
5 Kattoulas +0.572s
6 O’Grady +0.640s
7 Ingram Hill +0.660s
8 Wilson +0.857s
9 Hallman +0.948s
10 Juncos +1.056s