Top Five Start for Norris and Collard at Silverstone

Carlin’s BRDC British Formula Three Championship team have secured a double top five starting position ahead of the opening race of the weekend at Northamptonshire circuit Silverstone. Both Lando Norris and Championship leader Ricky Collard were strong runners throughout the entirety of the 20 minute session and placed their Tatuus-Cosworth cars in third and fifth respectively as the flag fell – ensuring a fantastic place from which to start the opening race of the weekend.

Following four test sessions yesterday at Silverstone, qualifying this morning provided the first glimpse of the cars in their competitive mode. Out of the gates the majority of the field went about their first runs however Collard, who currently heads the championship standings, and Norris returned to the pit lane to wait a few minutes in order to find that all important optimum time on track.

Just a few minutes later, the pair left the pits at almost the same time as they began their own qualifying runs. This meant that their competitive laps didn’t begin to come through until the mid-point of the session. Collard briefly jumped up to top of the time sheets however by this point the times were dropping dramatically and he was quickly bettered. Norris meanwhile had moved up to ninth with his opening lap and then a lap later had moved up to second.

The Carlin pair didn’t look back from there and remained in strong positions throughout despite the times continuing to fall. Their respective laps also improved seeing Norris jump up to second and Collard just behind in third with four and a half minutes of the competitive session remaining.

With the time counting down the last gasp effort laps were being set all around and with the chequered flag waved on the start/finish line Norris ended the session in third and Collard fifth ensuring a double Carlin top five start ahead of race one this afternoon.

Norris said of qualifying, “I think that was definitely a good improvement on where we were yesterday and the car is feeling pretty good. I think there is still a little bit more for me to find however we know that our race pace is strong and overall I think this is a good place to start for us this afternoon. We need to make sure that we keep the position off the line and hopefully move up from there during the race,”

Collard added, “Qualifying was pretty good for us as and I know that with a good start again I can gain positions here. I really enjoy racing and that is what I am going to go out there and do today and get more points with the aim to extend my championship lead. We have to make sure that we have a good race tomorrow as well, although we don’t know what the weather will be like, because we need to work on a fast lap for pole for race three. I’m still leading the championship and that’s the main thing.”

Race one will get underway at 14.35 this afternoon before two further races tomorrow.