Hakkinen on Brands Hatch pole

The Finn narrowly beat teammate Bruno Spengler to pole in the final segment of qualifying, while Alexandre Premat shone in his one-year-old Audi as he qualified third on the grid.

Championship leader Paul di Resta had a disastrous session, as he was eliminated in the first segment of qualifying and will start his home race from 15th on the grid.

The Scottish driver tried several times to get through to the next session, and although he briefly made it back into the top 14 in the closing stages, he was eventually bumped out again.

Last year's winner Mattias Ekstrom will start from fourth on the grid, while Christian Abt backed up Premat's performance with fifth place in another 2006-specification Audi.

Reigning champion Bernd Schneider will start sixth, while Jamie Green could not repeat his front-row qualifying performance from last year, and the Mercedes driver will start seventh in his home race.

The British driver did set a time which would have been good enough for pole position during the middle of the final session, but his time was disallowed because the red flags had come out after Martin Tomczyk crashed at Turn 2.

Markus Winkelhock had a much stronger performance in qualifying, as he qualified in the top 10 for the first time since he returned to the series in place of Tom Kristensen.

The remaining British drivers also had a difficult session, as 2005 champion Gary Paffett was only 13th fastest, while Adam Carroll and Susie Stoddart were eliminated during the first segment.

Pos  Driver            Make        Time
 1.  Mika Hakkinen     Mercedes    42.660
 2.  Bruno Spengler    Mercedes    42.692  +   0.032
 3.  Alexandre Premat  Audi        42.784  +   0.124
 4.  Mattias Ekstrom   Audi        42.798  +   0.138
 5.  Christian Abt     Audi        42.952  +   0.292
 6.  Bernd Schneider   Mercedes    42.953  +   0.293
 7.  Jamie Green       Mercedes    43.153  +   0.493
 8.  Martin Tomczyk    Audi      2:56.774  +2:14.114
 9.  M.Winkelhock      Audi        42.795  +   0.135
10.  Mathias Lauda     Mercedes    42.848  +   0.188
11.  Lucas Luhr        Audi        42.869  +   0.209
12.  Timo Scheider     Audi        42.920  +   0.260
13.  Gary Paffett      Mercedes    43.015  +   0.355
14.  M.Rockenfeller    Audi        43.048  +   0.388
15.  Paul Di Resta     Mercedes    43.128  +   0.468
16.  Adam Carroll      Audi        43.188  +   0.528
17.  A.Margaritis      Mercedes    43.299  +   0.639
18.  Susie Stoddart    Mercedes    43.335  +   0.675
19.  Daniel La Rosa    Mercedes    43.416  +   0.756
20.  Vanina Ickx       Audi        43.618  +   0.958