Bittersweet home qualifying for Hitech Racing
Saturday, 1st May 2010
Bittersweet home qualifying for Hitech Racing
Hitech Racing endured a bittersweet qualifying session for the second round of British F3 International Series season at Silverstone, with Will Buller and Gabriel Dias missing out on the chance to secure pole position for the Buckingham-based team’s home race.
Both drivers displayed front-running pace during qualifying on the new Silverstone Arena circuit, with Gabriel topping the times early in the session. However,when other drivers went quicker on the second run on new tyres, Gabriel was knocked down to sixth on the times – meaning he will start the third race of the weekend on Sunday from the third row of the grid.
However, with the grid for race one later today being decided by the second quickest time posted by each driver during the session, Gabriel will line up fourth on the grid.
MSA Team UK driver Will also showed impressive speed during the session but missed out on fighting for pole due to a yellow flag shortly after he had posted his fastest lap of the session. That lap was still good enough to put him third on the grid for race three, although his second quickest time leaves Will with work to do in race one from twelfth place.
“It was a bit of a bittersweet session for us,” team boss Ryan Sharp said. “Both drivers have done well, but we also know we could have done better. Gabriel was on provisional pole for both races after the first set of tyres but others then went faster on the second set of tyres and we didn’t. Sixth on the grid for race three isn’t a true reflection of his pace.
“Will set a good time to secure third on the grid for race three, but then there were yellow flags on his next laps and he couldn’t improve. Unfortunately that also means he will start outside the top ten for the first race.
“While we are a bit disappointed to have missed out on a home pole, it’s a massive improvement over Oulton Park and a good starting point for us going into the first race.”
The result of today’s first race will decide the grid for race two on Sunday morning, with a random draw being used to reverse anything between the top six and top ten finishers.
