Jordan Collard continued his quest to be labelled this year’s king of qualifying by storming to another pole position at Silverstone this afternoon.
Having started on pole for the season-opener at Oulton Park, and then set the fastest time last time out at Snetterton too, Collard again shone in the first session of the weekend.
Collard’s 2m19.291s best shattered the existing lap record of 2m23.810s from 2015. Silverstone has since been resurfaced, but even so the measure of Collard’s lap was highly impressive.
“It was actually a bit hairy on that lap!” said Collard. “To have these cars fast you have to run them a bit loose, so I was hanging on at times. However, it’s all down to the work from the MINI UK team – they set the car up and I just go and drive it and get all the credit. Honestly, the job they are doing is superb.
“The best thing is my best time was my last lap, so it shows that we have the pace for a race distance and there’s no drop off.”
Nathan Harrison will start second, having fallen just 0.281s shy of top spot.
“I’m happy with that,” he said. “I think we have the pace to race Jordan this afternoon. It looked like he had a tow for much of the session and I didn’t, so things could well be closer than they seem.”
Championship leader Ant Whorton-Eales will start third, and said there was work to do.
“That session was tough,” he said. “We’ve been fighting some issues with the car’s handling since Snetterton and as soon as we cure one we find another. We’ve got a bit of instability in the high-speed stuff here, so there’s more to come. We’ll be tinkering with the settings I think.”
Rob Smith will start fourth, ahead of Luke Reade, David Robinson and Snetterton star Jac Maybin. Ollie Pidgley was eighth fastest from Jack Davidson and Louis Doyle. Rory Cuff and Lewis Brown rounded out the top 12.
Lawrence Davey again struggled with straight-line speed after a mystery power problem and will start just 21st. A similar issue afflicted Calum King, who will line up in 23rd.
