Collard clinches front row start

Ricky Collard has continued his strong form around Brands Hatch this morning in BRDC British Formula Three qualifying clinching a front row start after a red flag disrupted session. The British racer was a front runner as soon as the first competitive laps began and had been right at the sharp end throughout to ensure he starts the opening race of the weekend in second position. Carlin team mate Ameya Vaidyanathan was also quick to get on the pace and continued to set green sector times to finish in an impressive seventh position. However fortunes were reversed for American racer Colton Herta whose session was ended early due to an unlucky off track excursion without a competitive lap time set.

Qualifying opened to grey skies all around and the threat of rain in the air however the cars were released on to a dry track as the 20 minute session began. Before any competitive lap times could be set, the first of two red flags disrupted the session; Herta was in the gravel trap following an unlucky accident and his qualifying had come to a premature ending.

Upon the restart it was business as usual for Collard and Vaidyanathan who immediately began to push to get their first flying laps on the board. Collard was quick to move to the top however he had fierce competition from both Matheus Leist and Sisa Ngebulana for the position. Their fantastic battle however was brought to a halt as a second red flag fell over the circuit – by this point Collard was in sixth and Vaidyanathan ninth having both enjoyed a strong showing so far.

With ten minutes left on the clock it was apparent that it was going to be a fight to the very end around the Brands Hatch GP circuit. Once again the battle raged for the top three positions with Collard consistently in the mix. The times continued to fall across the board and as the flag fell Collard was just pipped to pole by Leist but will line up alongside the Brazilian on the front row of the grid in second.

Collard said of qualifying, “Last time I started second at Brands Hatch I won so I’m hoping to do the same here this afternoon. Second is a good place to start because it’s at the top of the hill and I’ve been focusing a lot on starts recently so I’m sure we can have a good one. The focus will be on pushing for those quick laps in the race and aiming for the win. I really wanted pole because I haven’t had one yet so that would have been great to snatch but still feeling confident going in to the race.”

As the last car to cross the line before the flag fell, Vaidyanathan had a final flying lap left in the tank – he took the opportunity with both hands and improved once again on his time to finish in a strong seventh position; setting his grid position for race one.

Vaidyanathan said, “It was really important to push right until the very end and keep the momentum going – the plan was always to get as many laps in as we could. This worked really well for us and I’m pleased with my starting position because I feel we can have a good race from there. The track was pretty good, nice and dry which made a change compared to yesterday and even though it started to spit a little towards the end it didn’t make a difference to our lap times.”

With no lap time set, Herta will start from the back of the grid for race one however the Carlin racer still has it all to play for with the grids for the second and third race tomorrow coming from a reversed top eight and fastest race laps respectively.