British GT Oulton Park qualifying report: Flick Haigh makes history with pole

Flick Haigh has made British GT history at Oulton Park as she became the first woman to claim an overall pole position after she stormed to pole for race one.

In her first qualifying session for Optimum Motorsport, Haigh paced the field as she finished 0.1s ahead of reigning champion Rick Parfitt Jr., in an Aston Martin V8 Vantage having set a 1m34.769s.

After the session, she said: “Qualifying went really well. On my first flying lap there were yellow flags at turn one and I thought ‘oh no’ because you on get one lap on these Pirelli tyres before they go off so I’m really happy with pole!”

The former Michelin Le Mans Cup racer went fastest twice in the session, as she overhauled Parfitt after the Team Parker Racing Bentley driver initially claimed pole position. She said her confidence in being able to put another quick lap together was the result of her confidence in the car.

“I’ve done a lot of set-up work with Jonny [Adam, her team-mate] in recent months. I’ve done six full days of testing overall so I knew the car was still there and that I would be able to push it for another lap.

For Adam – who claimed second place for race two in the GT3 Pro section of qualifying – the qualifying results for the pair was the result of the work they’ve been doing.

He added: “It’s been a good week really, we were good in testing yesterday and Flick drove really well in qualifying.

“The car feels exceptional and you can tell Flick is comfortable with the car because she can feel how the car is performing which has allowed her to do a few good laps rather than just one flier. This is all down to the graft she’s put in before the weekend, as well as all the days of testing, she did six to eight hours on the simulator as well to familiarise herself with Oulton.”