Toshiki Oyu breaks Silverstone record again in EF Open qualifying

Photo: Fotospeedy

Toshiki Oyu continued his remarkable debut Euroformula Open weekend at Silverstone with a second straight pole position.

The Honda junior set a 1m49.477s lap on his first true flying lap in qualifying, a benchmark that was still unbeaten when the session was red flagged with three minutes to go by a Billy Monger spin at Luffield.

Monger’s Carlin team-mate Nicolai Kjaergaard looked to be the most likely to topple Oyu from top spot in the one-lap shootout afterwards, but the Dane ended up being held up by Fortec Motorsports debutant Manuel Maldonado and failed to improve.

Kjaergaard was also one of the first to return to track when the session was restarted, and it was the last drivers to cross the line that ended up upping the pace.

Formula 3 rookie Dennis Hauger briefly took pole for Motopark, before being bettered by team-mate Cameron Das. Carlin’s Monger then put in a lap good enough for third, while the patient Oyu was the last to set a lap and ended up putting 0.360 seconds between himself and team-mate Das.

The fourth Motopark car of Enaam Ahmed ended up 0.741s back in fifth, ahead of Double R Racing’s Linus Lundvqvist – the top HWA-powered car.

Kjaergaard was shuffled down to seventh, while his Carlin team-mate Christian Hahn improved to take eighth.

Completing the top 10, with identical lap times, were Motopark’s Niklas Krutten and Teo Martin Motorsport’s title contender Lukas Dunner. The failure to take pole for the Austrian means he is still 108 points behind the absent Marino Sato in the standings, with 134 available through the rest of the season.

Qualifying results