Sixth row start for Lancaster at Home

Jon Lancaster will line up on the sixth row for his first home race at Brands Hatch on Saturday. The 19 year-old Multiflight-backed driver had been running first throughout the early part of free practice but suffered with a broken driveshaft half-way through which severely cut short his session.

In the 25 minute qualifying, which had been split into odd and even numbers, the Leeds teenager suffered with oversteer and struggled to get a clear lap around the tight 1.2 mile Indy circuit. However at the flag the winner of the last round was less than three tenths off the quickest time in a session in which all 13 cars were covered by less than a second.

For the opening race pole is determined by the quickest lap from the two sessions. With Jules Bianchi posting the fastest lap of the two sessions, he will start from pole position with the remaining drivers in his session lining up behind him and the drivers from the second session lining up on the outside rows.

For Jon, tomorrow’s opening 58 lap race around the Kent track will prove a challenge, starting from the outside of row six but the BRDC Superstar remains confident of improving his position throughout the race to earn himself a good grid slot for Sunday’s second race.

"Things had been looking good in free practice," said Jon. "We’d been P1 for the first part and easily in the top two when the driveshaft went. I came in to replace it but when I went out I couldn’t reproduce those times.

"In qualifying I just didn’t pull it all together. I lost a tenth in one corner alone and round here, one tenth is a lot. The car is good I just didn’t get a clear run or hook up all the sectors together when it mattered. In the early part of the session I was third but then after I changed to my second set of tyres I wasn’t able to improve as much as the others.

"I think maybe I overdrove a bit as I really wanted pole here today and now having looked at the data, if I’d been able to pull it all together I could easily have been on the front two rows. Now though I’ll just have aim for a good start tomorrow and try and pick up as many places as possible to get up into the top eight and get a good start slot for Sunday’s second race."

Race one will get underway at 10:50 on Saturday morning. The results of that, with the top eight positions reversed, will take place at 11:20 on Sunday.

1. Jules Bianchi ART Grand Prix Dallara F308 Mercedes 41.668

2. Koudai Tsukakoshi Manor Motorsport Dallara F308 Mercedes 41.782

3. James Jakes ART Grand Prix Dallara F308 Mercedes 41.899

4. Yann Clairay SG Formula Dallara F308 Mercedes 41.966

5. Niall Breen Manor Motorsport Dallara F308 Mercedes 41.970

6. Franck Mailleux Signature-Plus Dallara F308 Volkswagen 41.975

1. Nico Hulkenberg ART Grand Prix Dallara F308 Mercedes 41:780

2. Sam Bird Manor Motorsport Dallara F308 Mercedes 41:795

3. Christian Vietoris Mücke Motorsport Dallara F308 Mercedes 41:809

4. Edoardo Mortara Signature-Plus Dallara F308 Volkswagen 41:856

5. Renger van der Zande Prema Powerteam Dallara F308 Mercedes 41:887

6. Jon Lancaster ART Grand Prix Dallara F308 Mercedes 42:029

www.jonlancasterracing.com

-Cathy Metcalfe-