Nakajima takes maiden F3 pole
Japanese racer Daisuke Nakajima claimed his maiden British Formula 3 pole position by topping the times during second qualifying at Silverstone this afternoon
The brother of Williams F1 racer Kazuki edged out Carlin driver Max Chilton by the smallest of margins - just 0.001s, but enough to give his Raikkonen Robertson Racing team its first pole position of the season.
"I can't believe it to be honest because I was P9 in the first session," said an incredulous Nakajima, who went off during first qualifying earlier today. "We changed the car but not a lot, just a tiny difference and the car was good. I was just pushing hard and now I'm P1."
The gusty tailwind through Copse and Priory, which made life difficult for the drivers during session one, returned for Q2 and undoubtedly contributed to the slowest times of the weekend so far.
The times didn't come until the last half of the 30-minute session, which created a frantic and traffic-filled fight for the top spot.
Chilton and Nakajima swapped provisional pole between them on consecutive laps before the Japanese had the final say by lapping the International circuit in a 1m15.090s best.
Hitech's Renger van der Zande again set third fastest time, just over a tenth further back, while championship leader Daniel Ricciardo (Carlin), who set five times good enough for pole in Q1, couldn't manage a single one this time and wound up only fourth.
Title rival Walter Grubmuller (Hitech) produced another solid performance to set fifth fastest time. He will line up alongside Carlin's Henry Arundel, who again completed the top six in his Dallara-Volkswagen.
Wayne Boyd again set seventh fastest time and again out qualified his T-Sport team-mate Adriano Buzaid, who continued to struggle and finished up 11th after setting his best time on his 17th and final lap.
After a strong showing in first qualifying, Double R's Carlos Huertas could only manage eighth fastest time in session two, just 0.090s clear of Fortec's Riki Christodoulou.
Carlin's Philip Major produced his best qualifying performance of the season to round out a top 10 covered by just seven tenths of a second, while T-Sport's Gabriel Dias completed a clean sweep of National Class poles in 12th overall.
Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap 1. Daisuke Nakajima Double R D/M 1m15.090s 2. Max Chilton Carlin D/V 1m15.091s +0.001 3. Renger van der Zande Hitech D/M 1m15.216s +0.126 4. Daniel Ricciardo Carlin D/V 1m15.252s +0.162 5. Walter Grubmuller Hitech D/M 1m15.393s +0.303 6. Henry Arundel Carlin D/V 1m15.458s +0.368 7. Wayne Boyd T-Sport D/V 1m15.503s +0.413 8. Carlos Huertas Double R D/M 1m15.537s +0.447 9. Riki Christodoulou Fortec D/M 1m15.627s +0.537 10. Philip Major Carlin D/V 1m15.735s +0.645 11. Adriano Buzaid T-Sport D/V 1m15.910s +0.820 12. Gabriel Dias T-Sport D/H 1m16.194s +1.104 13. Hywel Lloyd CF D/H 1m16.351s +1.261 14. Jay Bridger Litespeed M/M 1m16.493s +1.403 15. Victor Garcia Fortec D/M 1m16.512s +1.422 16. Daniel McKenzie Fortec D/H 1m16.839s +1.749 17. Stephane Richelmi Barazi Epsilon D/M 1m16.999s +1.909 18. Kevin Chen Double R D/M 1m17.438s +2.348 19. Michele Faccin West-Tec D/H 1m18.276s +3.186 20. Victor Correa Litespeed S/H 1m18.463s +3.373 21. Satrio Hermanto Litespeed S/H 1m18.577s +3.487 22. Maxim Snegirev West-Tec D/H 1m19.224s +4.134
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