Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Joseph Loake put in two late flying laps to take a double pole position on his GB3 debut at Oulton Park.
The JHR Developments driver lapped 0.180 seconds faster than team-mate Matthew Rees to take pole for race one, with Rodin Carlin’s Callum Voisin a further 0.010s back in third and with the top 23 drivers separated by just 1.1s.
Loake will also start at the front for race two based on drivers’ second-quickest laptimes, with Voisin alongside him and Red Bull junior Souta Arao third.
Weather conditions were perfect for the 20-minute session, with pre-event testing pacesetter Matthew Rees posting an early benchmark of 1m29.605, but he was quickly beaten by Loake and Fortec Motorsports’ Jarrod Waberski.
Nico Christodoulou moved to the top for Arden VRD with a 1m28.816s, before Arao lowered the pace by a further 0.5s.
Voisin set a 1m28.257s to lead the way at the halfway mark, 0.081s ahead of Arao, while Douglas Motorsport’s Tymek Kucharczyk improved to within 0.047s of Voisin in third.
Fortec’s Max Esterson put in two quick laps to sit fourth, with his second-best lap leaving him provisionally on pole for race two.
The order at the top remained the same until three minutes remaining, when Rees set a 1m28.138s to move ahead, with Arao improving as well to reclaim second.
Loake grabbed the advantage with less than a minute remaining by edging Rees by 0.111s, and then improved on his final lap to seal a double pole.
A late effort secured Voisin third for race one, with Hitech GP’s Arao fourth. Arden’s James Hedley also went quicker late on edge Kucharczyk to fifth.
Reigning British Formula 4 champion Alex Dunne was seventh ahead of Esterson, while Chris Dittmann Racing’s Arthur Rogeon will start his first ever car race from ninth. David Morales will line up alongside him, with all three of JHR’s cars in the top 10.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Joseph Loake JHR Developments 1m27.958s
2 Matthew Rees JHR Developments+0.180s
3 Callum Voisin Carlin +0.190s
4 Souta Arao Hitech GP +0.244s
5 James Hedley Arden +0.405s
6 Tymek Kucharczyk Douglas Motorsport +0.427s
7 Alex Dunne Hitech GP +0.504s
8 Max Esterson Fortec Motorsports +0.542s
9 Arthur Rogeon Chris Dittmann Racing +0.543s
10 David Morales JHR Developments +0.592s
Race 2 grid
1 Loake 1m28.027s
2 Voisin +0.230s
3 Arao +0.311s
4 Hedley +0.403s
5 Rees +0.432s
6 Esterson +0.540s
7 Jarrod Waberski Fortec Motorsports +0.590s
8 Costa Toparis Carlin +0.631s
9 Kucharczyk +0.635s
10 Dunne +0.645s