Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Two late laps secured Finn Harrison a double pole in a tight GB4 qualifying session on Silverstone’s Grand Prix layout.
The Elite Motorsport driver lapped 0.148 seconds faster than Fortec Motorsports’ Linus Granfors, who had been quickest before being edged late on.
KMR Sport’s Brandon McCaughan set an early benchmark of 2m20.464s on a damp circuit to lead Harrison by almost half a second. McCaughan then lowered the pace to 2m19.383s as Burgoyne beat Harrison’s improved effort to move into second.
Granfors moved to the top by 1.1s with a 2m18.261s in the session’s second half and, after McCaughan reduced his advantage to 0.1s, the Swede posted a 2m16.862s to then lead by an increased margin of 1.5s.
Elite’s Alisha Palmowski went second fastest with less than two minutes to go but was then beaten by Arden’s Leon Wilson and Harrison, the latter closing to within 0.072s of Granfors.
As the chequered flag fell, Harrison set a 2m16.714s to take race one pole away from Granfors who was unable to improve on his final lap. Wilson and Palmowski set their personal bests but remained in third and fourth while points leader McCaughan and Burgoyne did not better their own times and ended fifth and sixth with KMR team-mate Chloe Grant close behind in seventh.
Harrison also secured pole for race two based on drivers’ second-best laptimes, with Wilson, Granfors and Palmowski filling the front two rows behind him.
Bas Visser is making his car racing debut for Graham Brunton Racing this weekend. The Dutchman’s only previous racing experience has been in karting – primarily in his home country – and he was the slowest qualifier in 16th place.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Finn Harrison Elite Motorsport 2m16.714s
2 Linus Granfors Fortec Motorsports +0.148s
3 Leon Wilson Arden Motorsport +0.236s
4 Alisha Palmowski Elite Motorsport +0.889s
5 Brandon McCaughan KMR Sport +1.668s
6 Harry Burgoyne Jr KMR Sport +1.889s
7 Chloe Grant KMR Sport + 1.917s
8 Callum Baxter Graham Brunton Racing +2.006s
9 Mayer Deonarine Graham Brunton Racing +2.514s
10 Jack Taylor Fortec Motorsports +2.708s
Race 2 grid
1 Harrison 2m16.934s
2 Wilson +0.284s
3 Granfors +0.322s
4 Palmowski +0.707s
5 Burgoyne +1.779s
6 Marcus Luzio +3.273s
7 Grant +3.298s
8 McCaughan +3.530s
9 Deonarine +4.791s
10 Dan Hickey Fortec Motorsports +5.100s