James Golding takes pole position in first ever S5000 championship qualifying
James Golding has taken pole position for Round 1 of the VHT S5000 Championship, followed by Thomas Randle and Ricky Capo.
A 14-car grid made their way to the Albert Park circuit for the Qualifying session as Antonio Astuti watched on from the paddock.
The Formula 4 graduate had an engine failure in the morning’s practice session, and his team were unable to rebuild his S5000 in time.
Antonio Astuti may not make Qualifying after his engine blew up in practice this morning. #S5000 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/3GIkfd2WBU
— Highway F1 (@highway_f1) March 12, 2020
Thomas Randle was at the top of the time sheets after the first hot lap, but the session was red flagged when Rubens Barrichello spun at Turn 3 and was beached in the sand.
The session restarted with nine minutes remaining, and Randle was again fastest. His time was quickly toppled by Alexandre Premat.
Randle claimed the top spot once more, before James Golding went quickest with an unassailable lap time of 1:50.652.
With that lap, Golding secured pole position, relegating Randle to second. Ricky Capo was third fastest.
Golding said "Unbelievable!”
“[It was a] lot different track to practice, had to go about it a bit of a different way, keep an open mind, and obviously [had] that red flag early.
“We just got to the front of the pit lane and focused on getting laps out rather than making changes to the car. I was pretty comfortable with it, and it just goes to show. Awesome start to this weekend, and also to the year.”
Golding was willing to predict that “the races will be good.”
“There are still plenty of passing of opportunities here, and after that qualifying, everyone’s still pretty close. I’m sure it’s going to be good for the spectators to watch, we’ll just try and put on a good show.”
Second-fastest Thomas Randle said “It was a tough session with the red flag.”
“I was hoping we weren’t going to get one!
“We had great track position before the red flag, and then we all parked at the 45-degree, nose-in, at the garage, which is what you’re meant to do, that’s what the rules say, and it seemed like the other half of the field barreled on down to the end of the pit lane, and so we lost our track position.So we’ve gotta find out what happened there.
“That sort’ve made it difficult in the second half, because James and I had a bit of traffic, which we didn’t have at the start. The car was really good, and I really just wanted to try and get on that front row—and obviously pole position.”
