Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Elite Motorsport’s Finn Harrison led the way in GB4 qualifying at Donington Park to take his third and fourth poles of the season.
Harrison headed the timesheet most of the 15-minute session despite laptimes tumbling throughout on a damp but drying circuit. Arden’s Leon Wilson snatched second on the grid for race one in the closing stages ahead of Fortec Motorsports’ points leader Linus Granfors, who edged Wilson to a front row spot for race two based on driver’s second-best laptimes.
The red flags were shown after just four minutes when Velocity Racing Development’s Ava Dobson ended up in the gravel at Old Hairpin, with Harrison leading his team-mate Alisha Palmowski by 0.2 seconds with an early effort of 1m41.192s.
Wilson inched ahead shortly after the resumption with a 1m41.183s, before Harrison set two faster laps to sit 0.6s clear of Palmowski. Granfors moved up to third but was over a second off the pace, and the Swede was demoted to fourth when KMR Sport’s Lucas Blakeley went second quickest with a lap 0.3s shy of Harrison’s benchmark.
Granfors responded to edge Blakeley by 0.1s but moments later the pair were beaten by Wilson, who moved to within just 0.028s of the provisional poleman.
Palmowski briefly moved to the top with a 1m39.710s before Harrison swiftly regained the ascendancy by lapping over 0.4s faster. After being let through by Palmowski on the next lap, Harrison went quicker still to extend his advantage to 0.6s.
He improved to 1m38.929s on his final lap to make sure of clinching a double pole, while Palmowski could not make use of her team-mate’s slipstream and was shuffled back to fourth by Wilson and title rival Granfors as the chequered flag fell.
Blakeley was also unable to set a personal best on his final effort and ended up fifth for both races one and two.
Graham Brunton Racing’s Callum Baxter qualified sixth ahead of Fox Motorsport’s Branden Templeton and KMR duo Chloe Grant and Harry Burgoyne Jr for both contests, the latter dealt a blow to his title hopes after struggling throughout.
Nicklas Ellis qualified 10th on his debut for Elite while Polish racer Aleksander Mizera was 14th on his and Idola Motorsport’s GB4 bow.
Qualifying results
Race 1 grid
1 Finn Harrison Elite Motorsport 1m38.929s
2 Leon Wilson Arden +0.147s
3 Linus Granfors Fortec Motorsports +0.555s
4 Alisha Palmowski Elite Motorsport +0.781s
5 Lucas Blakeley KMR Sport +1.082s
6 Callum Baxter Graham Brunton Racing +1.113s
7 Branden Templeton +1.249s
8 Chloe Grant KMR Sport +1.702s
9 Harry Burgoyne Jr KMR Sport +1.798s
10 Nicklas Ellis Elite Motorsport +2.431s
Race 2 grid
1 Harrison 1m39.108s
2 Granfors +0.522s
3 Wilson +0.629s
4 Palmowski +0.844s
5 Blakeley +0.936s
6 Baxter +0.960s
7 Templeton +1.424s
8 Grant +1.691s
9 Burgoyne +1.771s
10 Ellis +2.721s