UK: Thruxton qualifying 1 report

Stian Sorlie took pole position for the first Formula BMW UK race after an extremely close qualifying session. The Norwegian driver moved to the top of the times early in the session and responded to immense pressure from Fortec Motorsport team-mate James Sutton to set the fastest time in the closing laps.

Duarte Felix Da Costa crossed the line to complete the first lap of the session and lead the long queue of cars around the circuit into the qualifying session - it did not last long however as the red flag immediately came out due to a mechanical problem with a car on the circuit.

The session was restarted five minutes later and Ollie Smith went straight to the top of the times. Immediately he came under pressure from Simon Walker-Hansell who was just one hundredth of a second slower. Josh Fisher went fastest on the next lap, as did Philip Glew and then Stian Sorlie – the top four drivers were all now covered by a tenth of a second.

James Sutton then went quickest by a quarter of a second. Sorlie tried to close up but was unable to make up the deficit as Sutton continued to lap quicker than anyone else. Walker-Hansell put in a strong lap to move up to second place less than a tenth of a second behind Sutton.

Sorlie kept the pressure on and persistence paid off as he moved ahead of Sutton with an impressive 1 minute 14.949 second lap to take the lead. Further down the field Glew and Fisher improved their times to move up to fifth and sixth as early leader Ollie Smith fell down the field.

Sutton set his fastest time on the final lap but it was not enough to move ahead of Sorlie so he lines up second on the grid. Walker-Hansell qualified third with Joao Urbano, who ran consistently highly in the session, in fourth place. The top fourteen cars were covered by less than one second.

Session times:
1. Stian Sorlie 1:14.949
2. James Sutton 1:15.004
3. Simon Walker-Hansell 1:15.198
4. Joao Urbano 1:15.216
5. Philip Glew 1:15.347
6. Josh Fisher 1:15.384
7. Christian Bakkerud 1:15.385
8. Sam Edwards 1:15.392
9. Duarte Felix da Costa 1:15.465
10. Ollie Smith 1:15.493