James Sutton claimed pole position for round 15 of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB at Brands Hatch today (Saturday 18 August), in a session where the top 10 drivers were covered by eight-tenths of a second. At the head of the grid the times were incredibly close, with just over a quarter of a second covering the top six drivers as Sutton (Red Line Racing) bagged pole by a tenth of a second. “The car felt mega. We changed the car a bit after testing and I knew I could improve on the second set of tyres in qualifying. It felt really good,” said Sutton. For much of the session, Steven Kane (Motorbase Performance) headed the times. However, a mid-session trip through the gravel at Paddock Hill bend interrupted his running and, though he later rejoined, he was not able to improve on his time. “I think the track changed a bit from yesterday,” said Kane. “I got oversteer and couldn’t get Paddock the way I wanted to. But P2 here isn’t a bad deal.” Right behind Kane on times was Jon Barnes (Team Parker Racing), with a best lap only 15-hundreths of a second away from pole, while Tim Harvey (Red Line Racing) almost matched Barnes’s time. “Almost perfect,” said Harvey. “It’s really close and I just couldn’t find another tenth out there.” “I’m so frustrated,” admitted Sam Hancock (Motorbase Performance), after slipping to fifth. He had been second fastest for much of the session, but was frustrated to have been edged down to fifth in the late stages of qualifying. Hancock was very closely pursued by Oliver Turvey in the Porsche Motorsport entry. “I learnt a lot about new tyres in that session and I got more out of them. To be two-tenths off pole is not too bad, and I still think I can finish on the podium,” said Turvey as he continues his impressive Carrera Cup debut. Disappointed to be seventh, and half a second away from the pace was Michael Caine (Team Parker Racing). “There is something fundamentally not right with the car,” said Caine. “That’s my worst Carrera Cup qualifying,” he said as the team started work to try and identify the handling problem. The top three drivers in the pro-am category were close behind Caine and covered by a quarter of a second as Nigel Rice (Red Line Racing), Andy Britnell (Motorbase Performance) and Charles Bateman (Team Parker Racing) all lapped within eight-tenths of the overall pole time of Sutton. Meanwhile, Pete Osborne (Team O), Steve Clark (Team RPM) and Colin Willmott (Willmott Racing) packed out the top six pro-am places.