Lanan Racing's Toby Sowery topped qualifying for the first of three rounds at Silverstone, beating Carlin's Enaam Ahmed and James Pull for pole position on the British Grand Prix circuit.

Sowery continued his Friday practice form into the Qualifying session and was soon lapping at a pace similar to his testing best. It didn't take long for him to drop into the low one minute 57 second bracket, close to last year's pole position time, set then by Thomas Randle. Despite getting close, Toby elected not to waste another set of tyres, and whilst he stayed on track to ensure his time was safe, didn't make any further improvements.

Meanwhile a late-starting Enaam Ahmed jumped up the order mid-way through the session and would become Sowery's closest challenger. Carlin team-mate James Pull joined him at the sharp end of the times, losing out to Ahmed almost by as much as the title leader had fallen short of the pole-sitter.

In fourth place was Rockingham winner Ben Hingeley, just seven hundredths of a second ahead of Cameron Das, who has also taken a victory this year at the Corby track.

Sixth place was claimed by Callan O'Keeffe, the South African unable to repeat his Friday testing form. He will start two places ahead of team-mate and Snetterton winner Jordan Cane, the Douglas cars sandwiching Double R's Guilherme Samaia. The top ten was completed by Fortec pair Manuel Maldonado and Nicolai Kjaergaard.

After the session pole-sitter Sowery said: "[It's] not quite as big a margin as we’ve been comfortably at, but pole’s still a very good result. I think if we put another set of new tyres on halfway through we would have [beaten last year’s pole time], but obviously it’s not just about qualifying, so we didn’t go for that option."

The opening race of the weekend at Silverstone will take place at 3.30pm.

BRDC British F3 Qualifying



1. Toby Sowery, Lanan Racing, 1:57.146s

2. Enaam Ahmed, Carlin, +0.130s

3. James Pull, Carlin, +0.262s

4. Ben Hingeley, Fortec Motorsports, +0.378s

5. Cameron Das, Carlin, +0.450s

6. Callan O'Keeffe, Douglas Motorsport,+0.483s

7. Guilherme Samaia, Double R Racing, +1.029s

8. Jordan Cane, Douglas Motorsport, +1.033s

9. Manuel Maldonado, Fortec Motorsports, +1.057s

10. Nicolai Kjaergaard, Fortec Motorsports, +1.405s

11. Jamie Chadwick, Double R Racing, +1.436s

12. Chase Owen, Hillspeed, +1.684s

13. Omar Ismail, Chris Dittmann Racing, +1.759s

14. Aaron Di Comberti, Lanan Racing, +1.933s

15. Jeremy Wahome, Chris Dittmann Racing, +2.191s

16. Nick Worm, Hillspeed, +3.627s