Lawson to start on front row as Kiwi stars at Silverstone

Liam Lawson will start from the front row of the grid at Silverstone in tonight’s FIA Formula 3 feature race as the Kiwi split the Prema outfit in his most competitive qualifying session of the year.

Lawson’s final lap of a 1.46.3125 around the 5.8km circuit was enough to hold provisional pole in the dying stages of the session.

But the erstwhile leader was ultimately pipped by 19-year-old Logan Sargeant who claimed his maiden F3 pole position while championship leader Oscar Piastri could only manage third.

After a hat-trick of rounds where qualifying proved to be their Achilles heel, Hitech GP at last got on top of the tyre warming woes with Max Fewtrell setting the fourth quickest lap time to line-up one row behind his New Zealand teammate.

This year marks the latest date in a season that a British Grand Prix has ever been held which consequently meant drivers battled sizzling temperatures.

The likes of Lawson and Fewtrell could only manage one competitive time from their sets of tyres with Sargeant one of only a handful capable of eking out a second lap.

With drivers saving the best of their tyres till the very end there was a flurry of activity across the final laps with Piastri holding provisional pole with his benchmark time of a 1.46.383.

That was narrowly beaten by Lawson who looked to have snared his maiden pole position only to be edged home by Sargeant moments later.

Frederik Vesti ensured the trio of Prema cars were all inside the Top-5 ahead of young Australian racer Alex Peroni who last year picked up only his second points finish for Campos Racing.

The third Hitech GP machine piloted by Dennis Hauger had a more difficult session hindered by traffic and the scorching temperatures to start 19^th.

The first F3 race of the weekend kicks off from 8.30 pm NZT tonight live on Spark Sport as Lawson looks to add to his winning tally of 2020 and put an end to his string of consecutive retirements.