OLIVIER ALGIERI BAGS DOUBLE DONINGTON PARK POLE

Olivier Algieri maintained his impressive form in the Vertu MINI CHALLENGE Trophy with a double pole position ahead of the final BTCC support event of the season at Donington Park.

The Westbourne Motorsport driver had been the man to beat across the weekend at Croft in the previous meeting to vault up the championship standings and would emerge on top following a challenging session where traffic and track limits would prove to be an issue.

Algieri hit the front early on when he became the first driver to dip below the 1m 54s mark to edge ahead of JCW regular Cameron Richardson, who was returning to Coopers for a second successive meeting.

Behind however, a number of drivers were struggling to get a timed lap in having been found guilty of track limits transgressions, leading to the session being halted in order to allow race control to resolve the situation.

That set up a ten minute blast to determine who would end up on top of the session, with drivers all jostling to try and get the best possible position on track – leading to a situation where cars almost tripped over each other at the final corner.

Once the quick laps started to come in, Algieri was able to better his time to wrap up pole for both races, with Louie Capozzoli leaving it until the last lap to put in a time quick enough for second.

However, the EXCELR8 man then lost the time to track limits, which instead promoted Richardson back up to second spot, despite the fact that he had been forced to sit out the final part of the session after a stone when through his radiator.

Luca Marinoni Osborne would end the session third having fallen just 0.011s shy of beating Richardson to the front row, with Ashley Gregory only 0.021s further back in fourth.

Gregory’s second fastest time however puts her on the front row alongside Algieri for race one of the weekend later today.

“It was a difficult qualifying session,” she said. “I think with the red flag, we all ended up going back out together, and then ultimately it was a case of just tripping over each other.

“The pace is 100% in the car, so I’m really confident but I think there’s six cars that are all on pace, so it’s going to be very, very close.

“I think anyone could win it. I think anyone could be on the podium – I’m really looking forward to it.”

Gabe Fairbrother took fifth on the times ahead of Rhys Hurd, with the top eight being rounded out by Alfie Garford and Ronnie Smith.

As a result of judicial hearings carried over from the previous event at Croft, a number of drivers will incur grid penalties for the opening race of the weekend with Murray Richardson, Hurd, Garford, Joshua Wilby and Monroe Rennard all dropping two places.

Simon Sweetland meanwhile will drop to the back of the field as a result of an eight place penalty.