Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
MSA Formula championship leader Lando Norris has claimed a pair of pole positions at the final round of the season at Brands Hatch.
In addition to grabbing a place at the front of the grid for the weekend’s two main races, the Carlin driver has also gained five points to extend his lead over rival Ricky Collard to 18.
The session was twice interrupted by red flags but Norris was the driver to beat after the final restart with a few minutes left on the clock, setting a 1m25.848s on his final lap to top the times.
He’d also led the way on the penultimate group of laps with a 1m26.154s giving him pole for the final race of the season based on second-quickest times.
His team-mate Colton Herta led the way during the second stoppage – caused by second-fastest man at the time Matheus Leist – and wound up second, 0.438s slower than Norris after backing off on his final lap.
His previous benchmark still ended up as the second-best of the second-best times, to complete a Carlin front row lockout for the two main races.
Collard was fourth fastest overall, missing out on third to Sennan Fielding by 0.01s with both over eight tenths down on the pace of Norris.
Collard drops to sixth on second-fastest times behind his Arden team-mate Enaam Ahmed, who arrived at Brands Hatch off the back of a treble win in SMP F4 last weekend, and Toby Sowery.
Ahmed could claim the rookie title this weekend if he can overhaul Dan Ticktum, who is absent after having had his licence suspended for an incident at Silverstone.
Ahmed and Sowery took the fifth and sixth fastest times respectively ahead of James Pull, with Leist finishing up in eighth ahead of Petru Florescu and Rafa Martins.
Sowery must take a five-place grid drop in race one for the collision that took Norris out of the lead of the final race at Silverstone.
The three spots behind Pull will be filled by three entirely different drivers in race three, with Dan Baybutt eighth, Sandy Mitchell ninth and Josh Smith 10th.
| Race one grid ? fastest times | ? | Race three grid ? second fastest times | ||||||
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time | Pos | Driver | Team | Time | |
| 1 | Lando Norris | Carlin | 1:25.848 | 1 | Lando Norris | Carlin | 1:26.154 | |
| 2 | Colton Herta | Carlin | 1:26.286 | 2 | Colton Herta | Carlin | 1:26.552 | |
| 3 | Sennan Fielding | JHR Developments | 1:26.689 | 3 | Sennan Fielding | JHR Developments | 1:26.831 | |
| 4 | Ricky Collard | Arden | 1:26.699 | 4 | Enaam Ahmed | Arden | 1:26.862 | |
| 5 | Enaam Ahmed | Arden | 1:26.708 | 5 | Toby Sowery | MBM Motorsport | 1:26.948 | |
| 6 | James Pull | Fortec Motorsports | 1:26.918 | 6 | Ricky Collard | Arden | 1:27.021 | |
| 7 | Matheus Leist | Double R Racing | 1:27.060 | 7 | James Pull | Fortec Motorsports | 1:27.423 | |
| 8 | Petru Florescu | Carlin | 1:27.191 | 8 | Daniel Baybutt | JTR | 1:27.594 | |
| 9 | Rafa Martins | SWB Motorsport | 1:27.280 | 9 | Sandy Mitchell | Arden | 1:27.626 | |
| 10 | Sandy Mitchell | Arden | 1:27.369 | 10 | Josh Smith | Fortec Motorsports | 1:27.676 | |
| 11 | Toby Sowery | MBM Motorsport | 1:26.864 | 11 | Petru Florescu | Carlin | 1:27.802 | |
| 12 | Daniel Baybutt | JTR | 1:27.430 | 12 | Tarun Reddy | Double R Racing | 1:27.991 | |
| 13 | Josh Smith | Fortec Motorsports | 1:27.467 | 13 | Rafa Martins | SWB Motorsport | 1:28.032 | |
| 14 | Tarun Reddy | Double R Racing | 1:27.591 | 14 | Matheus Leist | Double R Racing | 1:28.379 | |
| 15 | Ameya Vaidyanathan | JTR | 1:28.626 | 15 | Louise Richardson | Richardson Racing | 1:28.735 | |
| 16 | Louise Richardson | Richardson Racing | 1:28.732 | 16 | Ameya Vaidyanathan | JTR | 1:29.397 | |
| 17 | Jack Butel | JHR Developments | 1:29.822 | 17 | Jack Butel | JHR Developments | 1:30.891 | |
| 18 | Greg Holloway | Richardson Racing | 1:33.230 | 18 | Greg Holloway | Richardson Racing | 1:33.303 | |
| 19 | Darius Karbaley | Falcon Motorsport | 1:35.297 | 19 | Darius Karbaley | Falcon Motorsport | 1:58.687 | |