Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Louis Sharp took a double pole position for the British Formula 4 season finale at Brands Hatch.
The two points he earned from topping qualifying means his championship lead over William Macintyre has now grown to three points.
Rodin Carlin driver Sharp jumped to the top of the times in the final five minutes of qualifying, putting himself just ahead of JHR Developments’ Deagen Fairclough.
Macintyre took the early lead ahead of Fairclough, before he knocked him off provisional pole with a 1m24.199s. That stood as the fastest for most of the remainder of the session.
Sharp jumped up to second and gradually improved his pace thereon, but was still in second place when red flags were brought out with five-and-a-half minutes left on the clock due to Argenti Motorsport’s Isaac Barashi stopping on track.
When qualifying restarted, Sharp continued to improve and he reduced Fairclough’s advantage to 0.027s before eventually knocking him off top spot with a 1m24.130s.
Fairclough could not improve but remained in second, with Hitech GP driver Macintyre 0.211s back in third.
James Piszyck and Aqil Alibhai were fourth and fifth fastest, ahead of Mika Abrahams and Gabriel Stilp, who topped the rookie classification. The returning Freddie Slater, Dion Gowda and Gustav Jonsson completed the top 10.
Sharp’s second-best laptime was enough to put him on pole for race one, with his fastest lap earning him pole for race three, ahead of Fairclough, Piszcyk, Stilp and Macintyre.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Louis Sharp Carlin 1m24.226s
2 Deagen Fairclough JHR Developments +0.056s
3 James Piszyck Hitech GP +0.242s
4 Gabriel Stilp Hitech GP +0.299s
5 William Macintyre Hitech GP +0.350s
6 Freddie Slater Double R Racing +0.369s
7 Aqil Alibhai Virtuosi Racing +0.418s
8 Gustav Jonsson Chris Dittmann Racing +0.489s
9 Dion Gowda Carlin +0.512s
10 Kanato Le Hitech GP +0.577s
Race 3 grid
1 Sharp 1m24.130s
2 Fairclough +0.069s
3 Macintyre +0.211s
4 Piszyck +0.216s
5 Alibhai +0.217s
6 Mika Abrahams Fortec Motorsports +0.362s
7 Stilp +0.376s
8 Slater +0.462s
9 Gowda +0.506s
10 Jonsson +0.513s