Ultra-competitive qualifying sees top four covered by less than a tenth of a second.

26 AUGUST, 2017 – Double R Racing’s Linus Lundqvist came out on top in a closely fought battle for pole position at Rockingham Motor Speedway in the F4 British Championship certified by FIA – powered by Ford EcoBoost.

A host of drivers looked capable of taking top spot, with seven drivers all recording times within three tenths of the pole time around the 1.94-mile circuit.

Lundqvist’s flyer with several minutes of the session remianing proved too good for his rivals. A 1m 18.787s lap deposing provisional pole sitter Oliver York who had edged ahead of longstanding P1 man Logan Sargeant.

“To be honest, I wasn’t that confident coming into this weekend as I wasn’t sure it would be our strongest track,” said Lundqvist.

“We did a lot of work yesterday and put together a good setup. We made few little mistakes in that session, but pulled out a good lap when it mattered.

“The conditions changed throughout the session. There was a bit of moisture in the air which made it interesting, but maybe that worked in our favour.

“We’ve had a lot of bad luck this season, but hopefully this is a sign that it’s turning around and we can excel in the final three meetings.”

“I’m definitely happy with that qualifying performance,” said York. “It was a tough session and you can see that just by looking at how the close the times are. P2 is a great result.

“I know this circuit pretty well and have done quite a few laps around here so I was pretty confident going into qualifying.

“We weren’t as quick yesterday so we changed some things overnight. They were only small tweaks, but they have definitely helped us take a step forward.”

As had been the case yesterday, Sargeant was able to marry speed with consistency and in doing so recorded the best second-fastest lap of anybody to claim pole for the final race of the weekend which will take place tomorrow.

Starting alongside him for both Round 22 and 24 will be TRS Arden’s Ayrton Simmons. Meanwhile title rivals Jamie Caroline and Oscar Piastri will start from the third row in what is undoubtedly a tantalising prospect.

Friday pacesetter Alex Quinn had to settle for seventh, unable to match the times he recorded in testing, yet still only 0.222s off the pole.

Patrik Pasma will line up eighth ahead of fastest Ford F4 Challenge Cup runner Hampus Ericsson and Double R’s Karl Massaad.

The first F4 British Championship certified by FIA – powered by Ford EcoBoost race of the Rockingham weekend follows at 1415.

F4 British Championship certified by FIA – powered by Ford EcoBoost

Provisional qualifying times Rockingham 26 August 2017

Round 22 grid order

1 Linus LUNDQVIST / SWE / Double R 1:18.787

2 Oliver YORK / GBR / Fortec 1:18.842

3 Logan SARGEANT / USA / Carlin 1:18.862

4 Ayrton SIMMONS / GBR / Arden 1:18.882

5 Jamie CAROLINE / GBR / Carlin 1:18.970

6 Oscar PIASTRI / AUS / Arden 1:19.004

7 Alex QUINN / GBR / Arden 1:19.009

8 Patrik PASMA / FIN / Carlin 1:19.373

9 Hampus ERICSSON / SWE / Fortec 1:19.389

10 Karl MASSAAD / LEB / Double R 1:19.464 etc.

Round 24 grid order (based on second-fastest times)

Sargeant – Simmons – York – Lundqvist – Caroline – Piastri – Quinn – Caldwell – Massaad – Ericsson etc.

Full times