Jack Goff surprised by “unexpected” Silverstone pole

Jack Goff admitted he was surprised to have snared pole position for the second time this season after a tightly-fought qualifying session at Silverstone.

The Eurotech Racing driver edged out Independents’ title rival Tom Ingram by just 0.001 to secure top spot on the grid, with his pole also being the first for a Honda driver at Silverstone in six years.

Goff’s pole position came despite him losing his quickest time in the session to a track limits infringement at Copse, although the 26-year-old expressed surprise at having been in the mix for pole in the first place.

“My best lap featured two yellow sectors, but they combined to give me the best time,” he said. “On my actual best lap, I just put a wheel off at turn one which probably cost me time, but they deemed that I’d exceeded track limits and took the time away. Rules are rules I guess, but we could have had a little bit more of a margin.

“To be honest, I didn’t expect us to challenge for the front row as this is a circuit where the saloon cars should really be quicker than we are. We had to have the car really on the edge to get the time out of it, and we’ll have to see now what we can do in the races.”

Goff added that he was keen to try and push for a podium finish at least in the opening race, with the lack of any rear-wheel drive cars on the front three rows being something he was keen to take advantage of.

“Over a race distance, I think the car will be good and hopefully the fact we don’t have rear-wheel drive cars around us will help at the start,” he said. “Previously, when we’ve qualified well, I’ve had a fast-starting BMW or Subaru to contend with and we don’t have that this time. It’s going to be close, but three solid races is what we are aiming for and I want to be bringing home a podium and pushing for victory.”