Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Luke Browning took a double pole position in the closing stages of British Formula 4 qualifying on the championship’s second visit of the year to Thruxton.
The Richardson Racing driver spent most of the session in the bottom half of the field, but his second last flying lap around the circuit put him on provisional pole, ahead of JHR Developments duo Carter Williams and Josh Skelton.
Though Browning couldn?t find any improvements on his final lap, his previous 1m15.288s effort was enough to secure pole for the opening race of the weekend, and his subsequent 1m15.465s scored him race three pole.
Williams, who spent most of the session swapping pole with team-mate Skelton, ended up 0.170s behind Browning.
Double R Racing’s Sebastian Alvarez jumped up the order with his final lap of the session to split the JHR duo, taking third quickest ahead of Skelton.
Championship leader Zane Maloney struggled to find pace throughout the session. On a circuit where slipstreaming is crucial, Maloney was forced to run behind drivers from other teams, as he is the lone Carlin driver once again this weekend.
He briefly climbed up to fourth, but dropped back down the order as his lap time was deleted. The Carlin driver continued to find improvements, eventually finishing fifth.
The top five will be the same for race three with the exception of Skelton and Alvarez swapping places on the second row.
Arden’s Bart Horsten will start alongside Maloney in sixth, ahead of JHR’s Alex Walker and early pacesetter Tommy Foster (Arden). Alvarez’s team-mates Louis Foster and the third Arden car of Alex Connor will complete the top 10 on the race one grid.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Luke Browning Richardson Racing 1m15.288s
2 Carter Williams JHR Developments +0.170s
3 Sebastian Alvarez Double R Racing +0.206s
4 Josh Skelton JHR Developments +0.487s
5 Zane Maloney Carlin +0.642s
6 Bart Horsten Arden +0.644s
7 Alex Walker JHR Developments +0.678s
8 Tommy Foster Arden +0.691s
9 Louis Foster Double R Racing +0.876s
10 Alex Connor Arden +1.228s
Race 3 grid
1 Browning 1m15.465s
2 Williams +0.120s
3 Skelton +0.369s
4 Alvarez +0.513s
5 Maloney +0.535s
6 Walker +0.736s
7 T Foster +0.879s
8 Horsten +0.949s
9 L Foster +1.123s
10 Connor +1.868s