Hitech GP’s Alex Dunne started his weekend on the front foot after setting the quickest time across two blisteringly hot ROKiT F4 British Championship certified by FIA practice sessions at Snetterton.
Dunne, who heads into the weekend in Norfolk with a 41-point lead over Carlin’s Ollie Gray, was prevented from unleashing his full pace in a morning session topped by JHR’s Georgi Dimitrov after red flags curtailed the running early.
But the Irishman improved a position to go fastest overall in the afternoon running, setting a 1:49.309 around the 2.96-mile venue to eclipse Gray, plus his Carlin team-mates Louis Sharp and Ugo Ugochukwu, by three tenths of a second.
Adam Fitzgerald put in a notable run to fifth-fastest, the Phinsys by Argenti racer continuing his recent run of improved form. Hitech’s Oliver Stewart, another driver on the cusp of his maiden silverware in recent rounds, completed the top six.
Daniel Guinchard (Argenti) starts the triple header 10 points adrift of Ugochukwu at the Rookie Cup summit, and was seventh quickest on this occasion, the Mercedes-AMG junior followed by Dimitrov, Eduardo Coseteng (Hitech) and Knockhill race winner Joseph Loake (JHR).
Noah Lisle was hot on his team mates’ heels in 11th spot, with Aiden Neate (Argenti) leading Virtuosi Racing pairing Michael Shin and Edward Pearson at their home event in 12th, 13th and 14th.
Jack Sherwood led the line for Chris Dittmann Racing in 15th spot, with Daniel Mavlyutov (Hitech) and Sherwood’s team-mate Divy Nandan rounding out the 17-strong field, the latter in a hastily rebuilt car after an off at Riches at the end of the morning session.
Qualifying marks the first competitive action of the weekend, staged tomorrow (13 Aug) at 10:30 (BST). Two races follow that afternoon, with lights out at 14:05 and 17:50. Race two features a partially-reversed grid, with the ten quickest qualifiers flipped to form the starting order. Sunday features one further, ITV4-televised race at 15:05.
To view the full result, click here.