Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Deagen Fairclough pipped Jack Sherwood to top British Formula 4 qualifying at Thruxton by just 0.004 seconds.
Hitech GP driver Fairclough jumped to the top of the times with his final lap of the session to set a time of 1m10.688s around the Hampshire circuit to secure his third pole position of the season.
Rodin Motorsport’s Sherwood was unable to improve on his final lap and had to settle for second, but he will start the first race of the weekend from pole with the best second-quickest time.
Fairclough had taken the fastest time after the first set of laps, ahead of Reza Seewooruthun and Sherwood. There was little movement in the first half of the session but lap times tumbled after tyres were changed for the second half of qualifying. Sherwood took provisional pole from Seewooruthun, with Fairclough bumped down to third.
James Higgins briefly took the top spot with a time of 1m10.579s, only for his lap time to be deleted for exceeding track limits.
Another improvement from Sherwood put him back on the top top of the timing screen until Fairclough’s final flying lap.
Sherwood’s second fastest time remained enough for pole position for the first race of the day, ahead of Abbi Pulling and Seewooruthun.
Scoular improved late in the session to go third quickest overall, ahead of Pulling and Seewooruthun.
Higgins dropped back to P6 after his lap time was deleted and couldn’t improve from that position. He starts the final race of the weekend just ahead of Yuanpu Cui and Martin Molnar, while Leo Robinson and Mika Abrahams completed the top 10.
Pulling moves up to the front row for race one alongside team-mate Sherwood, with Hitech duo Seewooruthun and Fairclough to share row two.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Jack Sherwood Rodin Motorsport 1m10.703s
2 Abbi Pulling Rodin Motorsport +0.069s
3 Reza Seewooruthun Hitech GP +0.073s
4 Deagen Fairclough Hitech GP +0.088s
5 Zack Scoular Xcel Motorsport +0.197s
6 Yuanpu Cui Argenti +0.234s
7 Mika Abrahams Hitech GP +0.378s
8 Leo Robinson JHR Developments +0.388s
9 James Higgins Rodin Motorsport +0.412s
10 Alex Berg Fortec +0.515s
Race 3 grid
1 Fairclough 1m10.688s
2 Sherwood +0.004s
3 Scoular +0.039s
4 Pulling +0.073s
5 Seewooruthun +0.084s
6 Higgins +0.180s
7 Cui +0.211s
8 Robinson +0.285s
9 Abrahams +0.333s
10 Berg +0.347s