Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
James Piszcyk put himself on pole position in the final moments of the first ever British Formula 4 qualifying session to be held on Silverstone’s full Grand Prix layout.
The Hitech GP driver will start from first place for the third race of the weekend, while it is each driver’s second-best laptimes that determines the grid for race one.
Piszyck’s team-mate William Macintyre set the pace early on in the 20-minute session, managing to lap the 3.66-mile circuit in 2m01.875s, with Fortec Motorsports’ James Higgins just 0.024 seconds slower in second place.
Macintyre was still top of the order during the mid-session lull, when most of the field came into the pits for fresh tyres.
He improved on his fastest time after that, setting a 2m01.732s, and was still top of the order when the chequered flag waved.
There were a few drivers who jumped up from the tail end of the field after that. The first was Dion Gowda, who provisionally placed himself on the front row of the race three grid. He would not stay there for long, though, as Piszcyk came flying through not long after with a 2m01.651s laptime to steal pole.
Gabriel Stilp followed through with a time just 0.025s slower to make the front row and form an all-Hitech top three completed by Macintyre. He will start from pole for race one, and the gaps were just as close on second-best laptimes.
Macintyre took pole by 0.024s over Higgins, who was fifth quickest overall, with Josh Irfan 0.052s off the top in third, Piszyck 0.061s behind in fourth and JHR Developments’ Deagen Fairclough only 0.112s off pole in fifth.
Irfan was seventh quickest overall, behind Kanato Le and ahead of Gustav Jonsson and Aqil Alibhai, with Fairclough rounding out the top 10.
Several drivers fell foul of track limits during qualifying, with multiple laptime deletions. Irfan, Alibhai and Fairclough were among those, and improved their pace later on. Stilp and Gowda’s jumps up the order were demonstrated by the fact that their second-best laptimes only left them 10th and 14th on the race one grid.
Championship leader Louis Sharp was only 12th fastest. Patrick Heuzenroeder and Noah Lisle placed 13th and 14th, with both having set the same laptime and Heuzenroeder getting the position off setting it first.
Isaac Barashi provisionally has reversed-grid pole for race two ahead of Kai Daryanani. Jaden Pariat would have been third on the grid, but will instead start eighth due to a five-place grid penalty from the previous round.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 William Macintyre Hitech GP 2m01.875s
2 James Higgins Fortec Motorsports +0.024s
3 Josh Irfan Carlin +0.052s
4 James Piszyck Hitech GP +0.061s
5 Deagen Fairclough JHR Developments +0.112s
6 Daniel Guinchard Chris Dittmann Racing +0.135s
7 Gustav Jonsson Chris Dittmann Racing +0.165s
8 Aqil Alibhai Virtuosi Racing +0.178s
9 Louis Sharp Carlin +0.208s
10 Gabriel Stilp Hitech GP +0.231s
Race 3 grid
1 Piszcyk 2m01.651s
2 Stilp +0.025s
3 Macintyre +0.081s
4 Dion Gowda Carlin +0.218s
5 Higgins +0.222s
6 Kanato Le Hitech GP +0.249s
7 Irfan +0.267s
8 Jonsson +0.275s
9 Alibhai +0.277s
10 Fairclough +0.301s