Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
McLaren junior Dries Van Langendonck has claimed pole position on his car racing debut in British Formula 4 at Donington Park.
Van Langendonck, who only becomes old enough to compete in the championship today on his 15th birthday, set the fastest lap of the session towards the end of qualifying to jump to the top of the times. His time of 1m28.777s was 0.118 seconds quicker than the next fastest driver, and would not be beaten.
Tommy Harfield was second fastest overall, but his second fastest lap time was enough for pole position in the first race of the weekend.
Jimmy Piszcyk set the pace early on, but there was plenty of time to be found during the 20 minute session. Van Langendonck jumped up to second, just 0.009s behind his Rodin Motorsport team-mate, but slipped down the order as others found improvement.
While most of the field returned to the pits for fresh tyres, Van Langendonck stayed out to set the fastest lap of the race, putting himself on provisional pole.
Times continued to drop through the second half of the session, as Harfield briefly knocked the championship newcomer off the top spot. But once the McLaren junior returned to the track with fresh rubber, he was once again lapping quicker.
Both Van Langendonck and Harfield found improvements late in the session, but it was the series debutant that stood top of the order when the chequered flag fell and he will start the third race of the weekend from pole.
Van Langendonck’s second fastest lap time was enough for second on the grid for race one, just behind Harfield.
Ethan Jeff-Hall placed third quickest, 0.171s behind Van Langendonck, but later had that time deleted for exceeding track limits, leaving him 11th and promoting Martin Molnar to third ahead of championship leader Fionn McLaughlin.
Ary Bansal was the top Challenge Cup driver in fifth overall. The next Challenge Cup competitor was Arjen Kraling in P12 overall.
Piszcyk dropped down to 10th by the end of the session, behind Henry Joslyn, Thomas Bearman, August Raber and Adam Al Azhari.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Tommy Harfield Chris Dittmann Racing 1m28.907s
2 Dries Van Langendonck Rodin Motorsport +0.022s
3 Martin Molnar Virtuosi +0.243s
4 Thomas Bearman Hitech +0.426s
5 Fionn McLaughlin Hitech +0.486s
6 Ary Bansal Fortec Motorsports +0.493s
7 August Raber Argenti +0.514s
8 Jimmy Piszcyk Rodin Motorsport +0.594s
9 Henry Joslyn Fortec Motorsports +0.607s
10 Adam Al Azhari Rodin Motorsport +0.626s
Race 3 grid
1 Van Langendonck 1m28.777s
2 Harfield +0.118s
3 Molnar +0.241s
4 McLaughlin +0.455s
5 Bansal +0.485s
6 Joslyn +0.486s
7 Bearman +0.522s
8 Raber +0.553s
9 Al Azhari +0.610s
10 Piszcyk +0.613s