Das Clinches Second Pole of Season at Rockingham

Cameron Das has extended his pole sweep with the Carlin man taking his second pole position of the BRDC British Formula Three Championship at Rockingham this morning. American racer Das, who secured his maiden pole position last time out at Oulton Park, continued his form with an unbeatable time at the fast and challenging Rockingham Motor Speedway. Das set his lap time with minutes to spare and was looking extremely comfortable before a red flag came out in the dying moments drawing the session to a premature end. Enaam Ahmed and James Pull will line up in a strong fourth and ninth respectively – positions both drivers can race well from in this afternoon’s race.

As the track went green on a cold 30 minute qualifying session at an overcast Rockingham, the three Carlin cars of Das, Ahmed and Pull remained in the pits slightly longer in order to get some clear air. However when they did take to the circuit it was a slightly laid back affair for the first ten minutes before the times suddenly began to come to the drivers.

Ahmed initially moved up to the head of the field with Das and Pull sitting nicely in the top eight before the times fell once more and the trio came back in to the pits for a change of tyres. By the half way point, and with most drivers waiting for their next runs to begin, Das was at the front, Ahmed in second and Pull in fifth.

British racer Pull was the first of the Carlin drivers to leave the pit lane on his fresh rubber – getting a couple of laps in hand in order to build up as much temperature in the chilly conditions. Das, who had changed just two tyres, and Ahmed, who had changed all four, left the pits with nine minutes remaining as they started their warm up procedures.

Das managed to get his tyres in nicely and had soon set a purple first sector – signalling his intentions; this was soon followed by the fastest lap of the session. However those around him were also improving on their times and it wasn’t long before a battle looked to be on. However the anticipated excitement was quickly extinguished when a red flag came out with two minutes left on the clock. The session would not start and meant that Das took pole position following his supreme quick succession of laps. Ahmed took fourth; having been on a faster lap at the time of the session’s conclusion, and Pull will start nicely in the top ten from ninth on the grid.

Rookie Das said of his second pole position, “In the first tyre run we didn’t get quite as many fast laps in as we wanted so we knew we had more in it for the rest of the session. We made the call to only go for two new tyres as they wouldn’t take quite so long to get up to temperature which was the right decision for us in the end as we were fast out there and took our second pole of the season. The car felt really good – even better than it did in testing yesterday so it felt pretty perfect out there. We just have to push now in the race this afternoon.”

Ahmed added, “The red flag came out at exactly the wrong time. I had put on four new slicks and so I was just getting to my best laps at the time. As I came around to finish my lap the red flag came out which was so disappointing because it would have put me on the front row. But we have a car that is capable of pole position and fourth is definitely somewhere that we can race well from this afternoon.”

The first of three races this weekend gets underway at 14:00 local time this afternoon.