OLIVIER ALGIERI SCORES DOMINANT POLE AT CROFT

Olivier Algieri produced a blistering performance in qualifying at Croft to score a second pole position of the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy season.

The Westbourne Motorsport driver had bagged pole for the Snetterton season opener and would prove to be in a class of his own as he returned to the circuit where he made his series debut twelve months ago.

Algieri hit the front with his second lap of the session and was able to then make two further improvements to end up as the only driver to break the 1:40s barrier in the session – albeit still three-tenths of a second off the qualifying lap record.

It would still put him nearly four-tenths of a second clear of the pack behind, with Algieri setting no fewer than four laps that would have been good enough for pole.

That result means he will also start race one of the weekend from the front of the grid later today.

“We showed good pace on Friday and wanted to try and carry it into the weekend itself, and you can’t really do better than a double pole is great,” he said. “I felt confident we could do it, but I didn’t expect there to be such a margin.”

Algieri will be joined on the front row for the weekend finale by Alfie Garford, who continued his impressive season for the Wera Alliance Racing Academy team, edging out the returning Louie Capozzoli by just 0.052s.

On second fastest times however, Capozzoli lapped quick enough to be on the front row of the grid for what will be his first outing in the series since 2022.

“It’s crazy to be back here,” he said. “As Friday testing progressed, I was able to get more dialled in to the car and then it was a full focus on qualifying. When I saw I was third quickest it was a surprise, but a nice surprise against such a strong field.”

Joshua Wilby was best of the championship contenders with the fourth fastest time for Team Avago ahead of Ashley Gregory as she looks to bounce back from a disappointing DNF in the final race of the weekend at Thruxton last time out.

Cameron Richardson – returning this weekend as a guest entrant in the Wera Alliance Racing Academy squad – was sixth ahead of Rhys Hurds and the current championship leader Alex Keens, who once again left himself with work to do in the races having arguably qualified lower than he would have hoped for Graves Motorsport.

Leo Purches and Louis Fleet rounded out the top ten – with the latter scoring his best qualifying result in the series by far.

Gabe Fairbrother however endured a session to forget as he suffered a holed radiator that prevented him from setting a representative time, putting him at the back of the grid for two of the three races.