Lawson on front row again for F3 Feature Race

A last gasp qualifying effort by Liam Lawson has seen the Kiwi notch his second successive front row start at Silverstone as Logan Sargeant ensures tomorrow’s opening F3 race has an identical font two positions as last week with a storming pole position lap.

Lawson, who won last week’s feature race from second, put in a scintillating final timed lap after a late red flag period to finish a mere two-tenths behind Sargeant who romped to another pole-position.

Sargeant had been trading fastest laps with his Prema teammate and championship leader Oscar Piastri for most of the opening half of the 30-minute session.

But as a flurry of drivers made their way to pitlane to prepare for their final runs, Piastri came to a halt just before pit entry.

A push start by the nearby marshals ensured the track stayed green with Piastri quickly rejoining the field seemingly having had remedied the issue.

However, no more than a handful of corners later did the Australian suffer an identical problem at Luffield, this team requiring the red flag to be safely recovered.

Sargeant was had bettered his team moments before the red flag to hold provisional pole with Lawson unable to find clean track position to lay down his competitive best.

But when the session was resumed with four minutes to spare, times improved further for much of the field as the Red Bull Junior set a time that leapt frog him to second and demoted HWA’s Jake Hughes off the front row who had momentarily held provisional pole before Sargeant set his last flying lap.

Hughes eventually took third ahead of the third Prema driver Frederik Vesti while Piastri ended up 11^th but has been put under investigation by the stewards for his stoppages.

Lawson was the only Hitech GP car inside the top-10 with his teammates Max Fewtrell and Dennis Hauger finishing 16^th and 24^th respectively.

The young Kiwi will be aiming to replicate his race-winning performance from last week in a race that could prove championship critical should Piastri be penalised and forced to start from the back of the grid.

The F3 Feature Race kicks off from 8.30 pm NZT tonight and can be watched live via Spark Sport.