Donington: Series Round 21 qualifying report

Alguersuari on Pole after Amended Result

Brendon Hartley posted the fastest time of the 30-minute qualifying session for Round 21 at Donington Park circuit but a stewards enquiry following numerous yellow flag incidents disallowed drivers times set under those conditions and Jaime Alguersuari claimed pole position just ahead of Brendon Hartley and Oliver Turvey. Similarly Henry Surtees set the fastest National Class time on his British F3 debut, but once the amended results were issued Jay Bridger had claimed his 8th pole of the year.

In the first five minutes of the session Henry Arundel was the early pace setter from Max Chilton, Henry Surtees, Sergio Perez and John Martin as Brendon Hartley, Oliver Turvey and Jaime Alguersuari waited in the pitlane to join the fray. Chilton made his bid for the top spot with a 1m02.503 as Hartley came across the line to begin his first flying lap. The New Zealander was on pace with a 1m02.556, just 0.053 behind Chilton who improved his time by 0.206 on his next lap.

With twenty minutes of the session remaining Oliver Turvey and Sam Abay both set their first lap time and were 3rd and 4th respectively and one lap later Turvey went to the top of the times with a 1m01.911s, with Abay going second fastest.

The times continued to tumble with first Hartley and then Alguersuari going fastest, the Spaniard's pole time now 1m01.660s. Alguersuari continued to hold the top spot while the places behind him and Hartley changed almost every 30 seconds as first Nick Tandy, Dean Smith, Walter Grubmuller and Sam Abay went third quickest. However the top spot changed with six minutes left on the clock when Chilton posted a 1m01.613 lap to go 0.009 seconds faster.

Brendon Hartley then went even quicker with a 1m01.462 lap, just inside Marko Asmer's lap record time of 1m01.594, with Turvey pushing his championship rival down to 3rd with a 1m01.540 lap.

Hartley improved by another two tenths on his last flying lap to secure his 6th pole of the year as Alguersuari went 0.121 seconds faster than Turvey to claim the other front row position.

Henry Surtees took the National Class pole with two minutes to go, just 0.018 seconds faster than Jay Bridger, the newly crowned champion sitting in the pitlane and unable to respond to the Surtees challenge.

However the results were amended following a number of yellow flag incidents and Jaime Alguersuari claimed his 6th pole of the year.

Round 21 of the 2008 British F3 International Series is due to start at 11:10 on Sunday and qualifying for the final race of the 2008 season will take place at 15:55 this afternoon.

-credit: bf3