Pietro Fantin beats Carlin drivers to pole for Rockingham British Formula 3 races
Pietro Fantin stole a march on fellow Brazilian Felipe Nasr by beating him to pole position in qualifying for this weekend's British Formula 3 round at Rockingham
As in free practice, the Hitech Racing driver prevented a Carlin clean sweep of the top six positions and edged championship leader Nasr to the fastest time by just under two tenths of a second.
Having claimed pole for Sunday's feature race with his 1m11.794s best, Fantin was the only driver to manage a second best time below the 1m12s mark, which means he will also start Saturday's opening race from the front of the grid.
Kevin Magnussen and practice pace-setter Jazeman Jaafar were next, while rookie Jack Harvey outpaced his more experienced Carlin team-mates Rupert Svendsen-Cook and Carlos Huertas to claim the fifth fastest time around the 1.94-mile circuit.
Svendsen-Cook was only sixth fastest overall, but an ultra-consistent run means he will start fourth for race one on account of his second best time, ahead of Jaafar and Harvey.
Formula Renault graduate Harry Tincknell was the fastest Mercedes-powewed runner in eighth, just half a tenth ahead of his Fortec team-mate Will Buller.
Sino Vision's series veteran Hywel Lloyd pipped Double R's Scott Pye to complete the overall top 10, although reigning British Formula Ford champion Pye set a second best time good enough to give him the final spot in the top 10 on the race one grid.
Less than 1.5 seconds covered the top 17 runners in the 20-car field.
Race one grid: Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Pietro Fantin Hitech Dallara-VW 1m11.895s 2. Felipe Nasr Carlin Dallara-VW 1m12.075s + 0.180s 3. Kevin Magnussen Carlin Dallara-VW 1m12.123s + 0.228s 4. Rupert Svendsen-Cook Carlin Dallara-VW 1m12.272s + 0.377s 5. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW 1m12.301s + 0.406s 6. Jack Harvey Carlin Dallara-VW 1m12.527s + 0.632s 7. Carlos Huertas Carlin Dallara-VW 1m12.534s + 0.639s 8. Harry Tincknell Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m12.657s + 0.762s 9. William Buller Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m12.736s + 0.841s 10. Scott Pye Double R Dallara-Merc 1m12.849s + 0.954s 11. Menasheh Idafar T-Sport Dallara-VW 1m12.854s + 0.959s 12. Hywel Lloyd Sino Vision Dallara-Merc 1m12.880s + 0.985s 13. Pipo Derani Double R Dallara-Merc 1m12.896s + 1.001s 14. Fahmi Ilyas Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m13.030s + 1.135s 15. Adderly Fong Sino Vision Dallara-Merc 1m13.354s + 1.459s 16. Lucas Foresti Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m13.361s + 1.466s 17. Bart Hylkema T-Sport Dallara-VW 1m13.422s + 1.527s 18. Yann Cunha T-Sport Dallara-VW 1m13.519s + 1.624s 19. Kotaro Sakurai Hitech Dallara-Mugen 1m14.944s + 3.049s 20. Luca Orlandi West-Tec Dallara-Mugen 1m17.031s + 5.136s Race three grid: Pos Driver Team/Car Time Gap 1. Pietro Fantin Hitech Dallara-VW 1m11.794s 2. Felipe Nasr Carlin Dallara-VW 1m11.974s + 0.180s 3. Kevin Magnussen Carlin Dallara-VW 1m12.078s + 0.284s 4. Jazeman Jaafar Carlin Dallara-VW 1m12.173s + 0.379s 5. Jack Harvey Carlin Dallara-VW 1m12.204s + 0.410s 6. Rupert Svendsen-Cook Carlin Dallara-VW 1m12.224s + 0.430s 7. Carlos Huertas Carlin Dallara-VW 1m12.391s + 0.597s 8. Harry Tincknell Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m12.473s + 0.679s 9. William Buller Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m12.523s + 0.729s 10. Hywel Lloyd Sino Vision Dallara-Merc 1m12.758s + 0.964s 11. Scott Pye Double R Dallara-Merc 1m12.764s + 0.970s 12. Menasheh Idafar T-Sport Dallara-VW 1m12.830s + 1.036s 13. Pipo Derani Double R Dallara-Merc 1m12.873s + 1.079s 14. Fahmi Ilyas Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m12.952s + 1.158s 15. Bart Hylkema T-Sport Dallara-VW 1m13.153s + 1.359s 16. Lucas Foresti Fortec Dallara-Merc 1m13.245s + 1.451s 17. Adderly Fong Sino Vision Dallara-Merc 1m13.279s + 1.485s 18. Yann Cunha T-Sport Dallara-VW 1m13.420s + 1.626s 19. Kotaro Sakurai Hitech Dallara-Mugen 1m14.803s + 3.009s 20. Luca Orlandi West-Tec Dallara-Mugen 1m16.256s + 4.462s Race one grid - Second-fastest qualifying times Race two grid - Race one result with top eight reversed Race three grid - Fastest qualifying times
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