Ashcourt Yamaha’s Lee Johnston claimed pole position for this afternoon’s Quattro Group British Supersport/GP2 Championship Sprint race at Donington Park.
Johnston got the better of Ben Currie (Gearlink Kawasaki) and Jack Kennedy (HEL Performance/Bournemouth Kawasaki) to take the pole after the session was red flagged with seven minutes to run.
Friday’s pace setter Harry Truelove (Truelove Brothers Racing Yamaha) made the early running before Kyle Smith (Dynavolt Triumph) took over but the first man to better Friday’s times was Johnston with a lap of 1’08.586 which put him a tenth clear of Kennedy (HEL Performance/Bournemouth Kawasaki) with Smith dropping back to third and Truelove fourth.
Next time around and it was Currie’s turn to go quickest, the Kawasaki man bettering Johnston’s time by 0.163s and there was a new third place man too as GP2 Cup runner Jamie Perrin (Spirit Motocorsa) pushed Kennedy back to fourth.
The usual suspects of Korie McGreevy (Mar-Train Racing Yamaha), Eunan McGlinchey (Gearlink Kawasaki) and Bradley Perie (Appleyard Macadam Yamaha) were also in the mix as the top eight, midway through the session, were covered by just half a second, although the latter would have hoped to have been closer to championship rival Kennedy.
With ten minutes remaining, Gearlink’s Currie still held sway in the number one spot but Kennedy moved up to second albeit by just 0.009s from Johnston. Smith’s team-mate Brandon Paasch was also on the move, going from 13th to seventh.
Johnston then went back to the top of the leaderboard with a lap of 1’08.291 putting him 0.132s ahead of Currie but the red flag came out soon afterwards, with seven minutes of the session to go, due to track contamination at turn two.
The session wasn’t restarted and that gave Johnston pole ahead of Currie, Kennedy, Perrin, Smith and Truelove.
Paasch, McGreevy, Perie and McGlinchey completed the top ten but GP2 Cup Championship leader Charlie Nesbitt (RS Racing Kalex) had a disappointing session as a crash at Roberts kept him back in 11th overall.
