Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
JHR Developments’ Matthew Rees edged Callum Voisin to the fastest time in GB3 qualifying at Snetterton, with Voisin taking pole for race two.
Pre-event testing pacesetter Tymek Kucharczyk led the way in the early stages of the 20-minute session with a 1m40.985s, before Arden VRD’s James Hedley lowered the benchmark to 1m40.226s.
Hitech GP’s Souta Arao soon climbed to second ahead of Rees and Alex Dunne, the top four separated by less than 0.1 seconds, with the latter then moving to the top with a 1m40.123s.
Rees edged ahead by setting a 1m40.020s, only to have his lap disallowed for exceeding track limits, before Dunne extended his advantage by recording a 1m39.837s.
The pace soon lowered further, with Voisin posting a 1m39.616s to head Kucharczyk by 0.075s. Having sat 10th on the timesheet after his lap deletion, Rees then posted a late effort to snatch race one pole with a 1m39.616s, breaking the track record in the process.
Voisin ended up second ahead of Kucharczyk, who will start from sixth due to a three-place grid penalty carried over from the previous round at Spa-Francorchamps.
Dunne will start third as a result, ahead of Hedley and points leader Joseph Loake. Hedley’s team-mate Noah Ping ran in the top five for most of the session, but was also carrying a three-place grid penalty from Spa.
Voisin will start from the front ahead of Kucharczyk in race two based on drivers’ second-best laptimes, with Dunne third ahead of Ping.
Fortec Motorsports’ Max Esterson spent the entire session in the pitlane with a gearbox issue and will start all three races from the back of the grid.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Matthew Rees JHR Developments 1m39.616s
2 Callum Voisin Carlin +0.101s
3 Alex Dunne Hitech GP +0.221s
4 James Hedley Arden 0.277s
5 Joseph Loake JHR Developments +0.362s
6 Tymek Kucharczyk Douglas Motorsport +0.187s *
7 Nico Christodoulou Arden +0.404s
8 Noah Ping Arden +0.265s *
9 Costa Toparis Carlin +0.412s
10 Souta Arao Hitech GP +0.502s
Race 2 grid
1 Voisin 1m39.728s
2 Kucharczyk +0.107s
3 Dunne +0.263s
4 Ping +0.284s
5 Rees +0.318s
6 Toparis +0.380s
7 Hedley +0.450s
8 Loake +0.454s
9 Cresswell +0.515s
10 Arao +0.525s
* 3-place grid penalty from previous round