Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Rodin Carlin’s Callum Voisin scored his first two GB3 poles of the season in a close qualifying session at Spa-Francorchamps that was red flagged with two minutes remaining.
Hitech GP’s Alex Dunne and Elite Motorsport’s McKenzy Cresswell both enjoyed spells at the top of the timesheet, but the pair were edged by Voisin before a stoppage for Arthur Rogeon on the Kemmel Straight brought proceedings to a premature end.
Dunne posted an opening effort of 1m15.873s to lead JHR Developments’ Matthew Rees by 0.252 seconds. The reigning British Formula 4 champion then improved by 0.2s on his second timed lap but dropped to second behind Cresswell, who went quickest with a 1m15.224s.
Cresswell then lowered the benchmark to 1m15.059s, with Dunne improving again to hold second ahead of Fortec Motorsports’ Max Esterson and Hillspeed’s Gerrard Xie.
There was a brief lull in the action before drivers headed out for their second runs, with Voisin then claiming the advantage with a 1m14.912s. Dunne set another personal best, but it was not enough to deny Voisin.
Douglas Motorsport driver Tymek Kucharczyk was another to go quicker just before the stoppage to qualify fourth behind Cresswell, with JHR’s David Morales pipping Rees to fifth by 0.006s.
Arden VRD’s Nico Christodoulou was a further 0.020s behind in seventh, having edged ahead of Esterson and Xie with a late effort.
Free practice pacesetter Souta Arao was 11th, one place behind Hitech team-mate Michael Shin, while points leader Joseph Loake was the last driver within a second of the pace in 14th.
Voisin’s second-best laptime secured him pole for race two by 0.038s ahead of Dunne, with Cresswell again starting from third, while Rees and Christodoulou set identical second-best times and will line up from fourth and fifth.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Callum Voisin Carlin 2m14.912s
2 Alex Dunne Hitech GP +0.127s
3 McKenzy Cresswell Elite Motorsport +0.147s
4 Timoteusz Kucharczyk Douglas Motorsport +0.364s
5 David Morales JHR Developments +0.507s
6 Matthew Rees JHR Developments +0.513s
7 Nico Christodoulou Arden VRD +0.533s
8 Max Esterson Fortec Motorsports +0.558s
9 Gerrard Xie Hillspeed +0.571s
10 Michael Shin Hitech GP +0.745s
Race 2 grid
1 Voisin 2m15.027s
2 Dunne +0.138s
3 Cresswell +0.197s
4 Rees +0.456s
5 Christodoulou +0.456s
6 Esterson +0.457s
7 Kucharczyk +0.462s
8 Xie +0.555s
9 Joseph Loake JHR Developments +0.909s
10 Edward Pearson Fortec Motorsports +1.067s