Home Formula 4British F4 Gowda earns maiden British F4 poles at Snetterton

Gowda earns maiden British F4 poles at Snetterton

by Bethonie Waring

Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography

Dion Gowda has claimed his maiden British Formula 4 pole position by just 0.041s at Snetterton, and made it a double by an even smaller margin. 

The Rodin Carlin driver jumped to the top of the order late on with a time of 1m47.415s. The time allowed him to knock team-mate and championship leader Louis Sharp off provisional pole with a little under four minutes left on the clock. 

Nobody would be able to better the time, but Gowda did improve his second best lap time of the day, placing himself on pole position for the first race of the weekend as well as the third. 

Sharp had set the pace early on before Kenato Le went faster. Le was knocked off the top spot by Will Macintyre, who managed to hold onto provisional pole for a while as the second fastest lap times shuffled. 

A late flurry of improvements put Sharp on the top spot moments before Gowda jumped up the order with his pole securing time. 

Sharp continued to slide down the order as others found improvements before jumping back to third just before the chequered flag. 

Le separates the two Rodin Carlin drivers for the third race of the weekend, but Sharp wil join Gowda on the front row of the grid for race one later this afternoon. 

Gabriel Stilp earned the title of the best placed rookie after he jumped up from 18th on the grid to fourth late on. He places just ahead of team-mate Macintyre. 

James Piszcyk took sixth, just 0.007s quicker than Deagen Fairclough. 

After a strong start to the session, and some strong performances in practice, Aiden Neate ended qualifying 10th overall, behind James Higgins and Daniel Guinchard. 

Douwe Dedecker was the slowest driver to set a time, while a problem on his first lap of the session meant Gustav Jonsson was unable to compete. 

Qualifying round-up
Race 3 grid
1 Dion Gowda Carlin 1m47.415s
2 Kanato Le Hitech GP +0.041s
3 Louis Sharp Carlin +0.051s
4 Gabriel Stilp Hitech GP +0.108s
5 William Macintyre Hitech GP +0.300s
6 James Piszcyk Hitech GP +0.317s
7 Deagen Fairclough JHR Developments +0.324s
8 James Higgins Fortec Motorsports +0.348s
9 Daniel Guinchard Chris Dittmann Racing +0.367s
10 Aiden Neate Fortec Motorsports +0.367s

Race 1 grid
1 Gowda 1m47.493s
2 Sharp +0.016s
3 Le +0.017s
4 Macintyre +0.255s
5 Guinchard +0.290s
6 Neate +0.300s
7 Higgins +0.321s
8 Josh Irfan Carlin +0.565s
9 Piszcyk +0.596s
10 Fairclough +0.682s