Pescatore Masters Soggy Silverstone to Take Maiden Pole Position

Emma Pescatore scored her maiden Pole Position in qualifying for the 2020 RAC Tourist Trophy at Silverstone.

The Italian would make the most of the ever improving conditions on a drying track using the Michelin intermediate tire to score Racing Team Solvalou their first pole position since the 2018 Round of China. The constant rainfall that has been at the circuit since early in Free Practice 2 earlier in the day would ease as the twenty minute qualifying session approached half distance. Leading the way provisionally before the rain would start to clear was Rhys Davies, looking to start the season with three pole positions in a row, and five since the end of last season. Davies would elect to stay on his full wets for the duration of the session, and would finish the session in seventh overall after others switched to intermediates.

Those that switched onto the intermediates would become the star of the show in the latter half of the session. Both Paganis on the debut of their updated Zonda, Joey Alliot, Evgeny Restov, Luke Gilson-Clarke and Emma Pescatore were the ones to move to the intermediates in the closing stages in Qualifying. After being near the back of the field after their first runs, Amato Agostini and Frank Zimmer were the first to light up timing screens on a drying Silverstone circuit. Agostini would be the first to go to the top of the times with Zimmer not far behind before the Zimmer would continue to improve. They would be then upstaged by Joey Alliot in his Carson Speedworks Corvette, going half a second clear of what the Australian was able to do. But after her first lap, Pescatore was only provisionally fourth, with enough time remaining for one lap.

After being half a tenth down on Alliot in the first sector, Pescatore would rally through the Maggots and Becketts complex to go a tenth up on the American after two sectors, before sealing the deal in the final four corners with the chequered flag flying. With Alliot unable to respond due to already taking the flag, it confirmed Pescatore’s first pole position in the GT Super Series and Solvalou’s first since Chris Winter was en route to his first world championship in Zhuhai, China in 2018. The Pagani duo were the only other drivers within a second of Pescatore, and they will share the second row of the grid for Sunday’s race in a terrific debut for the upgraded Zonda.

The biggest shock of the session came from Luke Gilson-Clarke, as he peddled his Oliver Motorsport Lamborghini to fifth overall on the times, en route to his first class pole position in the season. He was the only Independent’s Trophy car to go onto the intermediates, and finds himself eight cars clear of the next highest placed Independent. The next highest Independent would be his teammate and team owner Peter Oliver, scoring the team that bear’s his name a rare 1-2 result in the Independent’s class. Evgeny Restov will share the third row of the grid with Gilson-Clarke, in his best qualifying performance since last year’s Round of China where he started fifth overall.

The returning Frank van Nifterick will start the debuting Nissan GTR in seventeeth overall, alongside the other debutantes for the RAC Tourist Trophy in the Sjöberg Motorsports Saleen. Current second place in the World Driver’s Championship Nathan McKane will start alongside points leader Rhys Davies on the fourth row of the grid.

Qualifying Results – RAC Tourist Trophy