Slater claims dominant pole position for home F3 race at Silverstone

Photo: Formula Motorsport Ltd

Trident’s Freddie Slater claimed a dominant pole position ahead of his home FIA Formula 3 race weekend at Silverstone.

The British driver comfortably cleared Theophile Nael, whose last-gasp lap salvaged him a strong starting position for Sunday.

Louis Sharp claimed third while championship leader Ugo Ugochukwu recovered from a torrid session to secure reversed-grid pole for Saturday’s sprint race.

As the session got underway, the Prema trio were first to move to the front of the pack, Jose Garfias bettering his teammate James Wharton’s time before Van Amersfoort Racing’s Hiyu Yamakoshi moved to the top.

The Japanese driver’s stint at the top didn’t last long though as Campos’ Ernesto Rivera claimed top spot before being demoted by the Trident duo of Slater and Matteo de Palo, the former briefly bettering his teammate’s time of a 1m46.383 before he dropped back down the order having exceeded track limits at Copse.

With 12 minutes remaining, De Palo strengthened his advantage at the front with a 1m46.334s before Rivera moved back to the front with a 1m46.352s.

Times began to tumble as ART’s Taito Kato tucked in behind Rivera before Maciej Gladysz moved to the front with a 1m46.294s.

Having had his earlier time deleted, Slater sought to redeem himself as he shot up to the top of the timesheets, putting 0.061s between him and Gladysz as he set a 1m46.233s.

His main championship rival Ugochukwu sat at the rear of the field yet to set a representative lap time, falling foul to track limits in similar fashion to his Campos teammate Nael.

With three minutes remaining of the session, drivers returned to the track for their final runs. Ugochukwu was first to set his final flying run with the American managing only 10th with the rest of the field yet to set a lap.

Nael followed, setting a purple first sector on his way to the top of the timesheets with a 1m45.880s only to be bettered by Slater, whose time of a 1m45.620s saw him snatch pole by 0.260s.

Prema’s Sharp lept up the order late on into third, 0.261s adrift of Slater, while Rivera and De Palo completed the top five.

Ugochukwu’s last-gasp lap was enough to clinch reversed-grid pole down in 12th with the Campos driver set to line up alongside AIX’s Yevan David, the Sri Lankan claiming a personal best qualifying position.

Qualifying results