Brands British F3: Jazeman Jaafar claims double pole on return

The Malaysian, who is racing in Formula Renault 3.5 this season, put in two laps on his second set of tyres to leapfrog Jordan King, who had held onto the top spot for most of the session.

Jaafar is contesting this weekend in order to be eligible for the Macau Grand Prix.

"On my first set of tyres it wasn't the best," he said. "We wanted to try a different set-up in the second test session yesterday and lost track time because of red flags, so we tried it again for qualifying.

"It was slightly conservative, but we made a couple of tweaks when I came into the pits and that made it much better."

Jaafar finished both his hot laps right behind Felipe Guimaraes, and said this cost him time as there were no blue flags to warn the Brazilian of his approach.

King, who starts second for races one and three, also reckoned he could have gone quicker, only to be delayed by yellow flags and traffic on his second set of tyres.

The spectacular Nicholas Latifi and Jann Mardenborough made it a Carlin 1-2-3-4 on fastest and second-best times, although Mardenborough will start race one from ninth due to a grid penalty incurred last time out at Spa.

That promoted Spa winner Antonio Giovinazzi, whose Double R car heads Fortec duo Guimaraes and Will Buller in both classifications. Championship leader Buller, as at Spa, believed he was suffering from a brake problem.

Ed Jones, whose car caught fire in Friday afternoon's test session, joined the running late but still comfortably outpaced his National Class opposition in his Team West-Tec Dallara.

Race one grid:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                 Time       Gap
 1.  Jazeman Jaafar      Carlin Dallara-VW        1m18.214s
 2.  Jordan King         Carlin Dallara-VW        1m18.386s  +0.172s
 3.  Nicholas Latifi     Carlin Dallara-VW        1m18.665s  +0.451s
 4.  Jann Mardenborough  Carlin Dallara-VW        1m18.836s  +0.622s
 5.  Antonio Giovinazzi  Double R Dallara-Merc    1m18.951s  +0.737s
 6.  Felipe Guimaraes    Fortec Dallara-Merc      1m19.067s  +0.853s
 7.  Will Buller         Fortec Dallara-Merc      1m19.523s  +1.309s
 8.  Sean Gelael         Double R Dallara-Merc    1m20.147s  +1.933s
 9.  Tatiana Calderon    Double R Dallara-Merc    1m20.645s  +2.431s
10.  Ed Jones            West-Tec Dallara-Toyota  1m20.733s  +2.519s*
11.  Peter Li Zhi Cong   Carlin Dallara-VW        1m21.400s  +3.186s
12.  Sun Zheng           CF Dallara-Mugen         1m21.991s  +3.777s*
13.  Cameron Twynham     West-Tec Dallara-Toyota  1m22.280s  +4.066s*
14.  Chris Vlok          West-Tec Dallara-Toyota  1m22.628s  +4.414s*

* National class

Race three grid:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car                 Time       Gap
 1.  Jazeman Jaafar      Carlin Dallara-VW        1m18.134s
 2.  Jordan King         Carlin Dallara-VW        1m18.292s  +0.158s
 3.  Nicholas Latifi     Carlin Dallara-VW        1m18.500s  +0.366s
 4.  Jann Mardenborough  Carlin Dallara-VW        1m18.811s  +0.577s
 5.  Antonio Giovinazzi  Double R Dallara-Merc    1m18.847s  +0.713s
 6.  Felipe Guimaraes    Fortec Dallara-Merc      1m19.041s  +0.907s
 7.  Will Buller         Fortec Dallara-Merc      1m19.224s  +1.090s
 8.  Sean Gelael         Double R Dallara-Merc    1m20.052s  +1.918s
 9.  Tatiana Calderon    Double R Dallara-Merc    1m20.420s  +2.286s
10.  Ed Jones            West-Tec Dallara-Toyota  1m20.647s  +2.493s*
11.  Peter Li Zhi Cong   Carlin Dallara-VW        1m21.204s  +3.070s
12.  Sun Zheng           CF Dallara-Mugen         1m21.478s  +3.344s*
13.  Cameron Twynham     West-Tec Dallara-Toyota  1m21.984s  +3.850s*
14.  Chris Vlok          West-Tec Dallara-Toyota  1m22.358s  +4.224s*

* National class

Race two grid is race one result partially reversed