Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Henry Joslyn topped the times ahead of Salim Hanna Hernandez in British Formula 4 qualifying at Thruxton.
The Fortec Motorsports driver set a 1m10.805s in the final moments of the 25-minute session to go to the top of the order. Virtuosi Racing’s debutant Hanna was the only other driver to lap sub-1m11s, ending qualifying 0.18 seconds behind.
The circuit was damp for the field, whose qualifying session marked the first track action of the day.
Hitech GP’s Leo Robinson set the early pace ahead of championship-leading team-mate Fionn McLaughlin and Thomas Bearman. McLaughlin improved to first place just before red flags waved as their other team-mate Xavier Avramides got stuck out on track.
The session resumed with 15 minutes remaining. Laptimes rapidly improved as the track dried out. Hanna jumped up 15 positions to third before improving again to set provisional pole, only to be beaten by Argenti Motorsport’s Ethan Jeff-Hall and Rodin Motorsport’s James Piszcyk. The pair swapped fastest laps before Virtuosi’s Martin Molnar jumped to the top.
Molnar held on to pole until two rapid laps from Joslyn as the clock approached zero brought him up from the tail end of the grid.
Joslyn had been outside the top 15 before his penultimate flying lap placed him third. With the following lap he went fastest, 0.296s faster than Molnar.
A late improvement from Hanna dropped Molnar back to third, and McLaughlin qualified fourth ahead of Jeff-Hall and Rodin’s Ella Lloyd.
Argenti’s August Raber was seventh quickest as Rodin’s Adam Al Azhari, Piszcyk and Robinson completed the top 10.
Chase Fernandez qualified 12th, provisionally putting the Xcel Motorsport driver on reversed-grid pole for race two.
Drivers’ second-best laptimes set the race three grid, and the top three were the same. Joslyn’s 1m10.851s beat Hanna by 0.259s and Molnar by 0.275s, with Al Azhari 0.618s behind in fourth.
Just 0.024s covered him, Raber and Jeff-Hall, with Robinson beating Piszcyk to seventh by 0.015s.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Henry Joslyn Fortec Motorsports 1m10.805s
2 Salim Hanna Hernandez Virtuosi Racing +0.180s
3 Martin Molnar Virtuosi Racing +0.296s
4 Fionn McLaughlin Hitech GP +0.405s
5 Ethan Jeff-Hall Argenti Motorsport +0.472s
6 Ella Lloyd Rodin Motorsport +0.551s
7 August Raber Argenti Motorsport +0.587s
8 Adam Al Azhari Rodin Motorsport +0.635s
9 James Piszcyk Rodin Motorsport +0.705s
10 Leo Robinson Hitech GP +0.799s
Race 3 grid
1 Joslyn 1m10.851s
2 Hanna +0.259s
3 Molnar +0.275s
4 Al Azhari +0.618s
5 Raber +0.625s
6 Jeff-Hall +0.642s
7 Robinson +0.779s
8 Piszcyk +0.794s
9 Chase Fernandez Xcel Motorsport +0.820s
10 McLaughlin +0.830s