Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Clement Novalak and Neil Verhagen will start the first and third BRDC British Formula 3 races at Silverstone from pole after topping wet qualifying.
The qualifying session occurred without a major incident in the wet. Carlin’s Novalak led the standings during part of the session as the times started to tumble, before Verhagen went nearly half a second quicker with five minutes to go.
The Double R Racing driver improved ever so slightly on his last lap as the chequered flag fell, although it was just 0.003s slower than Ayrton Simmon’s final qualifying lap.
But Novalak ended up finding more time at the end of the session to take pole position for race one by 0.507s from Chris Dittmann Racing’s Simmons.
The trio also make up the top three for race three’s grids through their second-fastest laps, with Verhagen and Novalak making up the front row and Simmons behind in third.
Novalak’s Carlin team-mate Kaylen Frederick qualified fourth for race one and sixth for race three, while Lucas Petersson will start ninth for both races.
Fortec duo Manuel Maldonado and Johnathan Hoggard qualified fifth and seventh respectively, with Hoggard being pipped to sixth by one-thousandth of a second by Double R’s Hampus Ericsson.
Kiern Jewiss (Douglas Motorsport) and Sasakorn Chaimongkol (Hillspeed) round off the top 10 after qualifying eighth and 10th for race one respectively.
Two drivers will be making their British F3 debuts this weekend. Hillspeed’s Nico Varrone was able to qualify 11th, while Lanan’s Andreas Estner was outqualified team-mate Josh Mason.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Clement Novalak Carlin 2m16.616s
2 Ayrton Simmons Chris Dittmann Racing +0.507s
3 Neil Verhagen Double R Racing +0.510s
4 Kaylen Frederick Carlin +0.736s
5 Manuel Maldonado Fortec Motorsports +0.902s
6 Hampus Ericsson Double R Racing +1.198s
7 Johnathan Hoggard Fortec Motorsports +1.199s
8 Kiern Jewiss Douglas Motorsport +2.094s
9 Lucas Petersson Carlin +2.244s
10 Sasakorn Chaimongkol Hillspeed +2.282s
Race 3 grid
1 Verhagen 2m17.180s
2 Novalak +0.232s
3 Simmons +0.718s
4 Hoggard +0.776s
5 Ericsson +1.068s
6 Frederick +1.185s
7 Chaimongkol +1.807s
8 Maldonado +1.837s
9 Petersson +2.047s
10 Jewiss +2.118s