QUALIFYING: Impressive Câmara beats Dunne to pole position at Silverstone

Rafael Câmara took his third Aramco Pole Position Award of the season, by beating Alexander Dunne to P1 at Silverstone.

With his final lap of the day, the Invicta Racing driver’s 1:39.690 put him on top of his Rodin rival by 0.201s, as ART Grand Prix Kush Maini rounded out the top three, just 0.001s behind Dunne.

However, it was Roman Bilinski that was the early pacesetter for DAMS Lucas Oil with a 1:41.123 as Nikola Tsolov completed his first lap to go up to second, just 0.041s behind.

ART then made their move with Maini going quickest on a 1:40.764, while his teammate Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak went to P3.

Moments later, Nico Varrone jumped up to P2 but was demoted to third by his Van Amersfoort Racing teammate Rafael Villagómez – who was 0.187s off Maini’s leading time.

The drivers pushed on for another lap on their first set of Soft tyres, and there were a few improvements, including from Dunne. The Irishman went top on a 1:40.536 after having his first time deleted to exceeding track limits.

After a short stint in the pitlane, the drivers returned to the track, fitted with a brand new set of Soft tyres.

The timesheets were lit alight with improvements, but on this occasion, it was Câmara who went fastest on a 1:39.690.

Dunne followed him across the line but his time was only good enough for second, with the Invicta driver over two-tenths clear of the rest of the field, with Maini just a further bit behind in P3.

Maini was part of a group of drivers that opted to pit after just one lap on this set of tyres, but a few others continued on looking to improve on their position.

However, they could not find more, leaving Câmara who took a third pole position in the last four rounds, ahead of Dunne and Maini.

Bilinski was fourth ahead of Tsolov, with Inthraphuvasak in P6. Joshua Duerksen was seventh, ahead of Villagómez, Ritomo Miyata, as championship leader Gabriele Minì rounded out the top 10.

Minì is set to start from reverse grid pole in Saturday’s Sprint Race where lights out is set for 13:45 local time.