Abbi Pulling became the first female driver to take a pole position in the GB3 Championship, as she will start first for race one at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
The Briton topped the times in a thrilling first qualifying session, as just 0.039s separated the top four on the grid. Pulling was two hundredths of a second ahead of teammate Maxim Rehm, and was suffering from radio issues during the session, resulting in her being unaware of her latest ground-breaking achievement until returning to the pits.
“It’s very special,” she said. “It was weird because I had no communications on the radio so all I heard was “du-du-du pole” and I didn’t know if [the engineer] was trying to say x amount off pole or the deficit!
“I said, “if you’ve just said we’re on pole, that’s really cool” and once I got back into the pit lane he told me “Yeah, you’re on pole!”
The first qualifying session was the closest of the season so far and Pulling was particularly pleased to have taken her first GB3 pole position in those circumstances.
“I heard it was a close margin,” she said. “I've always said I want to do stuff on merit. I want to get places and do everything on merit. That was purely deserved and very proud of myself for that.”
Pulling had previously matched her series-best qualifying position with fourth in the season-opener at Silverstone and explained that a shift in mindset to be more “easy-going” in her sophomore GB3 campaign has improved her confidence.
“Last year, I drove with a bit of desperation to prove a point and that was to my detriment,” she said. “I know I've got it in me. It's just about putting it together on track, and I executed that in the qualifying session. It's really cut-throat in GB3 as well with the 15-minute [sessions as] we don't have long to put a lap in. That was a special one."
In the second part of qualifying, Pulling impressed again, this time setting a time good enough for third on the grid for race two tomorrow. She had faced further difficulties in that session too.
"I was actually surprised with Q2, because I had no comms again and I did it with no tow,” she explained. “I saw the lap on the dash, and I thought there's a lot in it if I could just get behind someone and got the peak of the tyre a bit better."
After a tough opening round to the season, Pulling is focused on making amends in the three races this weekend.
“It will just be a case of not over driving again, picking your moments, picking your battles,” Pulling said. “I just need to score points… I want to show that I can go the distance but to finish first, I’ve actually got to finish, so we'll just see out plays out."
Race one is scheduled to start at 11.00 CEST tomorrow, with race two scheduled for 15.55 CEST. All races this weekend are streamed live on the GB3 Championship website.