QUALIFYING: Martins rockets to pole in close Silverstone affair

Victor Martins made good on his early promise in Free Practice to take the Aramco Pole Position Award, a sublime final lap putting the ART Grand Prix driver on top in a tightly fought Silverstone Qualifying.

The Frenchman’s 1:39.731 was good enough to beat Rodin Motorsport’s Alexander Dunne by 0.065s, with Jak Crawford rounding out the top three for DAMS Lucas Oil.

After the early installation laps, it was PREMA Racing’s Sebastián Montoya that set the pace on a 1:41.225.

However, that time was quickly beaten by Luke Browning and then Richard Verschoor, who was fastest by 0.331s over the Hitech TGR rookie thanks to a 1:40.777.

The MP Motorsport driver was quickly dethroned by ART rival Martins, who went to the top on a 1:40.710 after the first set of laps.

Having lost an earlier time for exceeding track limits, Montoya went to fourth on his next lap, while Browning jumped up to sixth. The session was soon Red Flagged, with Rodin’s Amaury Cordeel having spun into a stoppage at the final corner.

When the green light was waved with just over 18 minutes left in the session, the majority of the cars stayed in the pitlane, but a couple of drivers outside the top 10 returned to the track.

One of those was Dunne, and the Irishman set the fastest middle sector on his way to P3, 0.098s off Martins’ time.

The rest of the field returned to the circuit with their brand new Soft tyres and there were improvements everywhere. Jak Crawford went fastest on a 1:39.971. But that was beaten by both Martins and Dunne, with the Frenchman in P1 with a 1:39.731.

The drivers then set off on another push lap, but no one could quite match Martins, who took his second Pole Position of the season.

Dunne ended up in second, with Crawford third, Roman Stanek in fourth, and Montoya rounding out the top five. Joshua Duerksen led AIX Racing’s charge in sixth, ahead of Verschoor, Dino Beganovic, Kush Maini, with Leonardo Fornaroli rounding out the top 10.

That means Fornaroli is set to line up on reverse grid pole for Saturday’s Silverstone Sprint Race, which is set to get underway at 13:15 local time.