A1-Ring qual 2: Another pole for Paffett
Britain's Gary Paffett took one more step, albeit only a point, towards the German Formula 3 title by snatching pole position for Sunday's race at the A1-Ring in Austria
Paffett now leads the series by 22 points in his Team Rosberg Dallara-Opel, and is seeking his sixth win of the season this weekend. He outqualified recent Italian F3 round winner Vitantonio Liuzzi (BSR Dallara-Opel) by 0.120s at the Austrian Grand Prix venue for his fifth pole of 2002.
Team Ghinzani's Jeffrey van Hooydonk (Dallara-Mugen) was third quickest, ahead of local hero Norbert Siedler (SRT Dallara-Opel), who was fastest of the six Austrians on the grid. Paffett's nearest title rival, PREMA Powerteam's Kousuke Matsuura (Dallara-Opel) was fifth quickest, while free practice pacesetter Markus Winkelhock (Mucke Dallara-Mercedes) was a frustrated 12th, one spot behind fellow regular frontrunner Frank Diefenbacher (BSR Dallara-Opel).
Former F3000 racer, and Toyota F1 test driver, Ryan Briscoe just made the top 10 in the second PREMA car, outpacing the recently spectacular Cesar Campanico by four spots on the grid.
German Formula Renault ace Jorg Hardt was a respectable 19th on the grid on his F3 debut, while van Amersfoort Racing's new signing, Kaichi Sato, wasn't a patch on his namesake Takuma and was only 28th fastest.
1 Gary Paffett, Rosberg Dallara-Opel, 1m27.190s
2 Vitantonio Liuzzi, BSR Dallara-Opel, 1m27.310s
3 Jeffrey van Hooydonk, Ghinzani Dallara-Mugen, 1m27.398s
4 Norbert Siedler, Swiss Tony Racing Team Dallara-Opel, 1m27.428s
5 Kousuke Matsuura, PREMA Dallara-Opel, 1m27.457s
6 Robert Doornbos, Ghinzani Dallara-Mugen, 1m27.465s
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