Phinsys by Argenti’s Matias Zagazeta scored his first British F4 pole positions, setting the fastest and second fastest laps in a textbook performance to secure a spot at the very front of the grid for race and three this weekend at Knockhill.
The Peruvian pipped Fortec Motorsport’s Joel Granfors with a 49.353 lap and just a 0.013s gap to continue the trend of extremely close times around the undulating track. It was a very impressive performance by the Swede nonetheless, who’s definitely been the fastest Fortec runner this weekend, ahead of rookie Oliver Gray and championship leader James Hedley.
But the most undeniable talking point of the session was rookie Matthew Rees claiming third on the grid, with championship leader Hedley starting at the back for race one and three, the JHR sensation will be looking to claw back the 24-point deficit at the sharp end of the standings and could very well be ahead at the close of play tomorrow.
Eduardo Coseteng and Aiden Neate proved Argenti’s pace with laps that were good enough to round out the top five, with Abbi Pulling in sixth and less than three tenths off the ultimate pace set by Zagazeta.
Dougie Bolger continued his recent forward momentum with a seventh place finish and being the leading Carlin runner once again. JHR’s Joseph Loake lines up eighth and will be looking for more solid points after taking two wins already in 2021.
Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak made steady gains as the session went on to finish up in ninth, with Oliver Gray completing the top ten for the Fortec camp. Carlin’s Kai Askey placed just outside the top ten to separate the top eleven drivers by just half a second.
Arden Motorsport’s Zak Taylor joins Askey on the sixth row with Mckenzy Cresswell being left frustrated for two weekends in a row, with the rookie cup and overall championship contender qualifying a lowly thirteenth.
Argenti rookie Marcos Flack was down in fourteenth, with David Morales in fifteenth and most shockingly of all – James Hedley at the very back in sixteenth. The silver lining for the title leader is that he will be starting race two from the front row and will be looking to maximise that race.
Qualifying Classification (Race 1 Starting Lineup)
| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matias Zagazeta | Phinsys by Argenti | 49.353 |
| 2 | Joel Granfors | Fortec Motorsport | + 0.013 |
| 3 | Matthew Rees (R) | JHR Developments | + 0.166 |
| 4 | Eduardo Coseteng (R) | Phinsys by Argenti | + 0.189 |
| 5 | Aiden Neate (R) | Phinsys by Argenti | + 0.231 |
| 6 | Abbi Pulling | JHR Developments | + 0.272 |
| 7 | Dougie Bolger (R) | Carlin | + 0.350 |
| 8 | Joseph Loake | JHR Developments | + 0.370 |
| 9 | Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak | Carlin | + 0.383 |
| 10 | Oliver Gray (R) | Fortec Motorsport | + 0.422 |
| 11 | Kai Askey (R) | Carlin | + 0.501 |
| 12 | Zak Taylor | Arden Motorsport | + 0.549 |
| 13 | Mckenzy Cresswell (R) | JHR Developments | + 0.551 |
| 14 | Marcos Flack (R) | Phinsys by Argenti | + 0.729 |
| 15 | David Morales | Arden Motorsport | + 0.861 |
| 16 | James Hedley | Fortec Motorsport | + 1.145 |
Race 2 grid is a complete reverse of qualifying. James Hedley will start on pole position.
Race 3 grid is set by second fastest times in qualifying. Matias Zagazeta will start on pole position.