LOUIE CAPOZZOLI LEADS THE WAY IN SILVERSTONE QUALIFYING

Louie Capozzoli emerged at the head of the field to top qualifying for the penultimate meeting of the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy season at Silverstone.

The 15 minute session would prove to be a hotly contested affair as drivers battled to try and find a tow to maximise their quick laps.

Capozzoli would leave it late in the session before he was finally able to hook a lap together, and it allowed him to vault to the top of the times as he nicked pole from Rhys Hurd by just 0.018s.

With Capozzoli unable to score points however, Hurd bagged the six bonus points on offer and also set pole for race one, which is set by second fastest times.

“Round here with the conditions it so important to get a tow and everyone was playing tactics,” Capozzoli said.

“I think I spent something like six or seven minutes just trying to find a tow as you can’t do it yourself, and I finally managed to get one at the last minute.”

The second row of the grid will be an all Wera Alliance Racing Academy affair, with Alfie Garford heading team-mate Jenson Mason, with the latter making his return to action this weekend for the first time since Thruxton.

Josh Wilby and Alex Keens rounded out the top six, with the championship leader just 0.001 seconds behind his rival having benefitted from a tow late on in the session to jump up the order.

Until that point, Keens had looked set to be outside the top ten on the grid and with work to do in order to defend his advantage in the points.

Despite a mechanical issue that briefly forced him to return to the pits, Gabe Fairbrother took seventh spot from Luca Marinoni Osborne, with Henry Foote bagging his best qualifying result to date in ninth.

Louis Fleet then completed the top ten in the second of the Team Avago entries.

Outside the top ten, Olivier Algieri – now running with Graves Motorsport – had to settle for twelfth in the times, with Ashley Gregory back in 16th having struggled to get the tow she needed during the session.