Photo: Jakob Ebrey Photography
Carlin’s Zak O’Sullivan claimed both poles for the second British Formula 4 round, running on Brands Hatch’s Indy layout.
The Ginetta Junior graduate was one of the last drivers to join the track for the opening session of the day at the circuit, but was immediately on pace, setting the then-second fastest time of the day on his first flying lap.
The provisional polesitter changed multiple times throughout qualifying, with Argenti Motorsport’s Casper Stevenson, Fortec Motorsports’ Roberto Faria and Arden’s Alex Connor all taking turns at the top of the order.
Connor was the first to set a time sub-1m28s lap and looked comfortably fastest until O’Sullivan lowered the benchmark to 1m27.255s.
Connor improved again in the final laps but couldn’t beat O’Sullivan, ending the session 0.130s behind.
Fortec’s Luke Browning took third ahead of JHR Developments’ Abbi Pulling, who put in two flying laps towards the end of the session.
Stevenson dropped back to fifth, just 0.029s ahead of Argenti’s Nico Pino. On second fastest times, Pino was only slower than O’Sullivan and Connor and will start race three of the weekend from third on the grid.
Faria was only seventh fastest in the end but will line up in fourth for race three, ahead of Browning and Stevenson.
Donington Park race-winner James Hedley was unable to get out in qualifying, with a presumed mechanical issue forcing the JHR Developments team to push him back to the paddock
Qualifying round-up
Race 1 grid
1 Zak O’Sullivan Carlin 1m27.255s
2 Alex Connor Arden +0.130s
3 Luke Browning Fortec Motorsports +0.298s
4 Abbi Pulling JHR Developments +0.374s
5 Casper Stevenson Argenti Motorsport +0.400s
6 Nico Pino Argenti Motorsport +0.429s
7 Roberto Faria Fortec Motorsports +0.465s
8 Christian Mansell Carlin +0.615s
9 Roman Bilinski Arden +0.671s
10 Matias Zagazeta Carlin +0.745s
Race 3 grid
1 O’Sullivan 1m27.506s
2 Connor +0.100s
3 Pino +0.252s
4 Faria +0.267s
5 Browning +0.324s
6 Stevenson +0.332s
7 Pulling +0.379s
8 Bilinski +0.511s
9 Mansell +0.519s
10 Zagazeta +0.874s