Tom Lebbon, Matthew Rees and Joel Granfors were the fastest drivers in qualifying at Brands Hatch. Here’s how each driver reacted after the session:
Double pole, Tom Lebbon:
It feels really good to get pole position here at Brands Hatch I managed to get it in those last few laps after the red flags throughout the session. Overall it’s a really good result.
In all fairness, even with the penalty it doesn’t affect me in my mind, as far as I’m concerned, we’re on pole position, and it’s a double pole position, and we’ll get to start at the front tomorrow in race two, which is definitely a good place to start, especially around here.
We’re definitely getting there with the team and me personally, something has definitely clicked recently and the pace has been there recently. Overall it’s really strong.
A win is definitely the aim but whatever happens in the races I’m happy with double pole at the end of the day.
Second, Matthew Rees:
It’s a big improvement from yesterday, we ended up in the wall! I also ended up about P16 so it’s wasn’t the best but we’ve picked ourselves up and going onto the GP loop I think we’ve just been learning today and found out the maximum through the corners. Obviously it’s paid off, the weekend’s not over yet so we’ll shift our focus towards the races. Hopefully we can get a win and maybe both if we can. We always aim high but if not there’s always the podium to go for.
For Steve [Hunter, JHR Team Principal], this is a great milestone, they’ve never done it before [taken pole or a win]. I got the second podium in the series for him at Oulton Park, it’s been a while and I hope I can give Steve some better points than we have at the moment. It would be great for both of us if we can.
Disconnecting your brain and trying to keep the car speed up just works for us. I think high speed tracks seem OK. At Donington and Snetterton weve always been somewhat fast and here we’ve obviously done a lot better. Hopefully we can use that speed and do better in the races than we have recently.
Third, Joel Granfors:
Yeah it was a difficult qualifying, especially with the two red flags which screwed up the tyres but it was the same problems for everyone. Me and Luke just by each other so it’s going to be close I think.
Usually P2 might be a better place to start than P1 because P1 you start uphill whereas in P2 you can point your car downwards which you will probably see me do later in the race, just point the car down and use the downhill to help get speed. I guess we’ll see how good a start we can get. Luke also in P3, just keep him behind, that’s the most important part, try and extend the championship and try to finish.
Probably in the beginning, and then I’m just gonna be eyes ahead. If Rees is still ahead, I’ll just try to hunt him down, if I’m P1, get a gap, qualifying laps all the time. It’s going to be interesting for sure.