Rydell takes a pair of poles

proceedings at Thruxton to add pole for the Sprint Race to his tally.

The Swede had already gone quickest in qualifying for the Feature Race.

Rydell saw off determined challenges by the two Nissans of
series leader
Laurent Aiello and David Leslie to plant his Volvo S40 firmly
on pole with
a 1m15.100s.

It was Independent driver Matt Neal (Nissan) who set the
initial target to
beat even after lighting up his rear tyres under braking at
the Club
chicane.

The gauntlet was then picked up by Honda's James
Thompson who was
the first driver to lap under 1 minute 16 seconds all
afternoon.

With track temperatures soaring the scene was set for another
showdown
between Volvo and Nissan. In a virtual copy of the morning
session Volvo's
Vincent Radermecker attacked first but could only manage
second best to
Thompson.

Laurent Aiello went next and after frantic late-braking
into Campbell
was still two tenths of a second ahead at the split,
enough to
steal provisional pole from Thompson.

With only two cars still to go it was a tense few minutes for
Aiello as he
waited to see if he would retain his front row position.

The
Frenchman did
not have to wait long as two slots later Rickard Rydell took
his second
pole position of the day with a faultless lap nearly three
tenths faster
than series leader Aiello.

Matt Neal once again set the best Independent time to secure
sixth place
ahead of both Alain Menu and Jason Plato.

Rydell's run of bad luck seems to have finally come to an end, but with title contenders Aiello, Leslie and Thompson queuing up behind him, he is likely to have his work cut out on Sunday.

Qualifying times for the Sprint Race at Thruxton: