Sam Hancock qualified third and second for this weekend’s races at Oulton Park. He went out early in the session and set immediately the fastest time (1min 24sec 079) for race 1, then tried to improve his time with a second flying lap, but had a small spin and went back into the pits to save his tyres.

Sam went out with his second set of tyres and again set the fastest time (1 min 24sec 082) for race 2. He tried to improve with a second flying lap but his tyres were off and he was a tenth slower.

With five minutes to go in the session, it looked as if Sam had the pole for both races... until Michael Caine set a blistering time (1 min 23sec 686), three tenths faster than any other driver! A few seconds later, Tom Bridgeman also improved his lap time with a 1min 23.963 sec, knocking Sam down to third place for the race 1 grid. Sam will start race 2 from the front row alongside Caine.

Sam said: “We were looking very good with 5 minutes to go and then Michael and Tom set two quicker lap times. It looks like the track was slightly quicker towards the end of the session but we decided to run early as we thought the heat would make it slower. It is a shame but we are still in a good position for both races. I saved my tyres, so hopefully we should be strong this afternoon and tomorrow morning.”

Qualifying was harder for Sam’s team mate, Phil Quaife, who expected more after a very good test day on Friday: “I was very confident after our performance yesterday. We ended fourth overall despite doing only one flying lap on new tyres and I was looking for a strong qualifying today. 6th is not where I wanted to be on the grid, but I am confident we can overtake a few cars and score some strong championship points in both races.”