Norris leads Carlin 1-2 in BRDC F3 qualifying

Lando Norris and Ricky Collard made it a Carlin front row lock out this morning in the first BRDC F3 Championship qualifying session of the season. It was a tense battle between the duo who were swapping positions right up until the final seconds. Ameya Vaidyanathan who had been 11th at the mid way point was 19th at the chequered flag.

As the first ever qualifying session under the new BRDC F3 banner got underway this morning, expectations were high for yesterday’s pace setter Norris and team mate Collard who was fastest in the final session on Saturday.

Collard didn’t disappoint, the British racer was amongst the pace setters from the outset, going third in the early stages. Collard improved a few minutes later to take provisional pole and a few minutes later went faster still.

Norris soon made his claim for the top spot though, relegating Collard to second, with 10 minutes to go, while Vaidyanathan was 11th.  Collard responded quickly though, going quickest again just before a red flag halted proceedings and forced all the drivers into the pits.

When the session recommenced, Collard held the top spot with Norris now P3. 16 year-old Norris made the most of the final moments though, going quickest of all on his first flying lap before Collard responded to go quicker still. In the final seconds it looked as though Collard might take pole, until a last attempt by Norris in the final seconds claimed pole with a time 0.041 seconds quicker than his team mate in p2 with Vaidyanathan 19th.

Pole man Norris said, “It was tough as I didn’t get that many laps together and struggled with traffic on both my runs. I just tried at the end to find as big a gap as possible so I could put some fast laps together but was faster than some of the guys ahead of me so had to overtake a few cars on my fastest lap which thankfully didn’t cost me too much time. I’m happy to be on pole as it gives me a better chance for the race.”

Team mate Collard added, “I’ve matched my best qualifying performance today, I’ve traditionally been a much better race than qualifier, so I feel confident going into the race. Fighting for pole this morning shows how well the team have helped me with specific skills and procedures such as tyre warming. I feel really confident, I’m looking forward to making a good start and having a hard but fair fight with Lando.”

The first race of the season will take place at 15.40 later today.