Ahmed to Start on the Front Row at Silverstone

Carlin’s Enaam Ahmed has started the BRDC British Formula Three race weekend at Silverstone in great style securing a front row start for the opening race of the weekend. Ahmed left it late to set his flying lap however was soon enough right at the sharp end of the field in his attempt to challenge for pole position. Just missing out, the Championship leader will start this afternoon’s race from a strong second position. Qualifying was another great showing for the three-car team with James Pull setting the third fastest time to take a second row starting position while Cameron Das rounded off the top five nicely – all positions from which they can race hard during the opening race of the weekend.

The 30 minute qualifying session this morning around the British circuit got underway in sunny conditions as the competitive field looked to do battle once again in the fight for pole. Das and Pull left it a short while before leaving the pit lane for their opening runs while Ahmed patiently waited a while longer than most for his one and only run.

The opening laps of qualifying saw Pull and Toby Sowery both place their cars to the top of the time sheets in their efforts to fight for pole. Sowery had been the man to beat through the entirety of testing yesterday, so the rest of the field had him in their sights as they hoped to challenge him this morning. With 17 minutes left on the clock, Ahmed finally made his move and left the pit lane for his one and only run. By this point, Das was in second with Pull just behind in third – both Carlin drivers pitted soon after for new tyres ahead of their final run.

Ahmed meanwhile started to wind up and make his move as the battle began with ten minutes left on the clock and with everyone back on track – soon the British racer was up to third and battling with his team mates. In the final few minutes Ahmed had moved up to second overall with Pull in third. Sowery remained on provisional pole position with the top three positions remaining unchanged and setting the grid with Ahmed taking a front row start and Pull in third; Das meanwhile improved in his final laps to fifth ensuring that all three Carlin cars line up nicely within the top five.

Ahmed said of qualifying this morning, “We waited for a while before heading out on track, my engineer and I decided on what time we were going to go out and knew that we had to push hard for the short amount of time we had. But it paid off and we have now used one less set of tyres so we’re looking good for the rest of the weekend too. Again, the car was strong out there and we made the most of it however Toby [Sowery] was just faster today – but we’ll be sending it during the race!”

Lining up in third, Pull added, “We went out at the start of the session with the aim being to get a banker lap on the board. After that we came in the pits and put another set of tyres on for our next run which was a bit tricky because the wind had changed quite a lot since yesterday so we had to adapt to that. We have Enaam [Ahmed] and Toby [Sowery] ahead of us and they are clearly the guys to beat today however I’m really looking forward to racing around Silverstone later today. I think overall it was a good result.”

The first race of the weekend will get underway this afternoon at 15.30 local time at Silverstone.