Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
British Formula 4’s championship leader Matias Zagazeta narrowly beat Aiden Neate to take two poles at Silverstone.
A late charge by Neate brought him to within 0.03 seconds of pole, but traffic in the last sector on his final lap denied him the top spot.
Zagazeta topped the order early on but tumbling laptimes meant he was soon displaced. He came into the pits to make a small set-up change and jumped back up into provisional pole position, only to be demoted to second by title rival Matthew Rees.
However Zagazeta was still on pole for race three, where the grid is determined on second-best laptimes, and actually he had enough pace to lower the benchmark again and reclaim race one pole.
He would eventually end the session with a time of 56.090s.
Rees and McKenzy Cresswell were running second and third late on until Neate managed a strong flying lap to secure second place. Thirs went to Rees, ahead of Cresswell and Marcos Flack.
Title contender Joel Granfors qualified sixth, while former points leader James Hedley struggled for pace. He qualified 12th overall, having set the exact same time as Carlin team-mate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak. Both were only 0.005s off Kai Askey in 10th.
Joseph Loake qualified seventh, finishing just ahead of Oliver Gray and Eduardo Coseteng.
Championship newcomer Cameron McLeod will start on pole for the reversed grid race as a result of being slowest in qualifying, with Arden team-mate David Morales lining up alongside him.
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Matias Zagazeta Argenti Motorsport 56.090s
2 Aiden Neate Argenti Motorsport +0.027s
3 Matthew Rees JHR Developments +0.051s
4 McKenzy Cresswell JHR Developments +0.102s
5 Marcos Flack Argenti Motorsport +0.173s
6 Joel Granfors Fortec Motorsports +0.200s
7 Joseph Loake JHR Developments +0.230s
8 Oliver Gray Fortec Motorsports +0.252s
9 Eduardo Coseteng Argenti Motorsport +0.279s
10 Kai Askey Carlin +0.352s
Race 3 grid
1 Zagazeta 56.116s
2 Rees +0.082s
3 Cresswell +0.082s
4 Neate +0.120s
5 Flack +0.189s
6 Granfors +0.199s
7 Loake +0.232s
8 Gray +0.235s
9 Askey +0.333s
10 James Hedley Carlin +0.350s