Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Lewis Wherrell claimed his maiden British Formula 4 pole positions at Snetterton, topping qualifying by just 0.047 seconds.
Wherrell jumped to the top of the times late in qualifying with the first lap sub-1m49s. Lap times continued to tumble, but none could get ahead of the JHR Developments driver.
A last-lap improvement for Wherrell lowered his fastest lap time to 1m48.841s, making his second-fastest lap time enough for pole for the opening race of the weekend. The accomplishment makes him the third different driver to claim a double pole position so far this season.
Ethan Jeff-Hall set the pace early in the session, but provisional pole swapped hands multiple times. Theo Palmer, Joseph Smith and Dries Van Langendonck each took turns at the top of the order. It was Ethan Lennon in top spot when most of the field came into the pits midway through the session. He wouldn’t remain there for long though, as Timo Jungling jumped up the order as the field started to come through again.
Wherrell jumped from outside the top 20 to second, before improving to first place with his next lap.
Behind him, Lennon was running second before Adam Al Azhari jumped up with his final lap of the session. The time knocked Lennon down to third, while Palmer qualified fourth.
Scott Kin Lindblom was fifth fastest overall, but the Hitech driver’s second fastest lap was enough for second on the grid for the first race of the weekend.
Van Langendonck took sixth, ahead of Jeff-Hall, Smith and George Proudford-Nalder. Jarrett Clark completed the top 10.
By the end of the session, Jungling had been knocked down to 12th, behind Cash Felber, putting him on pole for the reversed-grid race two.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Lewis Wherrell JHR Developments 1m48.848s
2 Scott Kin Lindblom Hitech +0.180s
3 Theo Palmer Hitech +0.196s
4 Dries Van Langendonck Rodin Motorsport +0.240s
5 Ethan Jeff-Hall Argenti Motorsport +0246s
6 Ethan Lennon Rodin Motorsport +0.322s
7 George Proudford-Nalder Virtuosi Racing +0.346s
8 Adam Al Azhari Hitech +0.359s
9 Joseph Smith Virtuosi Racing +0.376s
10 Jarrett Clark Virtuosi Racing +0.437s
Race 3 grid
1 Wherrell 1m48.841s
2 Al Azhari +0.047s
3 Lennon +0.050s
4 Palmer +0.056s
5 Lindblom +0.093s
6 Van Langendonck +0.129s
7 Jeff-Hall +0.236s
8 Smith +0.322s
9 Proudford-Nalder +0.324s
10 Clark +0.421s