Thomas Ingram Hill and Fred Green were the quickest drivers in qualifying at Silverstone. Ingram Hill took a maiden pole with the fastest time, while Green secured his fourth pole of the year for race two.
Here's how each driver reacted afterwards.
Race one pole, Thomas Ingram Hill, Fortec Motorsports:
“It’s a really good feeling. Sad it took this long; it should’ve been earlier this year, but it's still a good one.
“It all stemmed from practice. We had a bit of a mess at Donington with the track limits but, since the get-go, it’s been track limits and getting to it. It worked really well and perhaps everyone else was being a bit silly with it and we were able to just keep doing what we were doing. That’s why [the gap] was a bit bigger because people had to adapt and we already were where we were. Obviously, that’s only two corners on the lap really, so the rest of it we were just really strong. I learnt a lot from last year, this was one of my stronger rounds, so I was just making it right from what happened last year. I messed up with the track limits last year so this year I had to learn from it.
“I’ve just been on the sim a lot and watching my laps. I was very fortunate that Fortec could send me the onboards, so I was able to watch it and that was the difference. I was able to have a plan of what I was doing. I wrote a lot of notes, tried a lot of things for this weekend because this is an important weekend for us, having to bounce back from a DNF and some bad points from Donington.
“I don’t want to jinx it but we’ve got to take it step by step.”
Race two pole, Fred Green, Elite Motorsport:
“Not too bad at all, I’m very pleased with that result. I’m satisfied with the job I did and we managed to get the car in a good window so I’m very happy and it feels good.
“The out-and-out pace wasn’t actually too strong. Tom [Ingram Hill] was very fast so that will be interesting for the race to see how that pans out. Obviously, I had a very good car underneath me which allowed me to replicate my lap a few times and hence why we are on pole for race two, so I’m chuffed with that.
“We’ve taken as much data as we could into it, but the conditions have changed and it’s a different time of the year so there’s always some variables with that. Starting from pole earlier in the season definitely gives me some confidence that I can convert that into a race win again.
“It’s typically warmer in August but actually the track is a lot slower at the minute as it is quite dusty from some of the GT cars putting a bit of dust on the track, so that’s something that we have to think about that changes lap by lap, which makes it a bit tough. Then, also the wind conditions is probably the biggest thing. The cars are very reliant on downforce so which way the wind is blowing can have a big effect.
“The goal isn’t to go and win, it’s just to get the best result possible and hopefully I do a good job. My rivals are a bit further back so I’m not in a huge rush to give Tom a run for his money, but if it is on the table then you can be sure I’ll have a go.
“A very tricky and frustrating Donington for reasons out of my control, so we lost the championship lead there but hopefully it won’t be long until we are back on top.”
