F3: At Silverstone, home favorite Browning grabs a stunning pole position

In a thrilling rain-shortened Silverstone qualifying, Luke Browning, the leader of the Hitech Pulse-Eight Championship, won pole position, besting Max Esterson of Jenzer Motorsport.

The drivers reported heavy rain to their teams as they warmed up their slick tires, setting the tone for an aggressive start to the practice.

The first flying laps were crucial, with Noel León of Van Amersfoort Racing setting the quickest time, followed by Alexander Dunne of MP Motorsport, sponsored by McLaren, in second place and Gabriele Minì of PREMA Racing in third.

A number of drivers, including Minì and his teammate Dino Beganovic, who had not yet set a time, remained outside the pits while the majority of the grid returned to the pits. But then there was a lot of rain, which prevented anyone from getting much better, so the teams had to pull their vehicles back into the pits.
As the practice was coming to an end and León was scheduled to start from pole, many drivers returned to the circuit in an attempt to gain as much experience in challenging circumstances as possible before the Sprint Race on Saturday.

But with one minute remaining, things began to look up, with the purple and green sectors lighting up the timing panels.

With a timing of 1:44.992, Browning—who had dropped out of P13—rose to the top of the standings, behind Esterson by a mere 0.045 seconds, with Sami Meguetounif of Trident coming in third.

After setting the quickest time earlier, Meguetounif’s teammate Leonardo Fornaroli had to settle for P4, ahead of Laurens van Hoepen, the driver of the ART Grand Prix.
After a close finish, Charlie Wurz secured the sixth position for Jenzer, ahead of Christian Mansell and Nikola Tsolov from ART. Callum Voisin, a British driver, finished in P9 for Rodin Motorsport.

Arvid Lindblad of PREMA was the next-placed Briton in P11, while Matías Zagazeta made it three Jenzer cars in the top 10.

FP2: Norris leads Piastri and Perez in the second practice at Silverstone.

León remained in the pits and then slipped to P12, placing him on reverse grid pole for Saturday’s Sprint Race, which is scheduled to begin at 09:20 local time.