Burti dominates then crashes

The Brazilian took the fastest time in the morning session from Indian Narain Karthikeyan's Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen, despite only using one of the two sets of tyres to which he is entitled.

With cooler conditions in the afternoon, that left Burti with more in hand than his rivals. But, when he saw Karthikeyan getting close to his time, he tried to improve his time further on new rubber.

'I saw that someone was closing. I wasn't trying too hard until that point,' said Burti. 'But on that lap I was really pushing - it was at least 0.2s quicker up to that point. I used too much of the outside kerb at Dingle Dell and that spun me off backwards into the barriers.'

Burti, who will start a repaired car tomorrow, had little reason to fear Karthikeyan's challenge.

'I had old tyres,' explained the Madras hotshoe. 'I didn't have a chance anyway. It was a very good lap - I was fast everywhere.'

Hot on the heels of the leading duo is British rookie Jenson Button, who will line his Promatecme Dallara-Renault up third, despite damaging a suspension pushrod on the kerbs at Dingle Dell in the faster second session. 'You can't say I wasn't trying,' he smiled.

Scotsman Andrew Kirkaldy, Burti's Stewart team mate, qualified fourth, but was disappointed not to go quicker with a car that felt much improved over the test day.

Matt Davies is the top Fortec Motorsport contender, taking fifth in his Dallara-Mugen from the second Promatecme car of Aluizio Coelho. The Brazilian was happy to leap up to the third row after a small accident in the morning session.

Down in seventh is Marc Hynes, the joint series leader.

'It's a bit of a struggle,' admitted the Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen driver. 'I did a better time at the end but that felt like it should be a mega pole lap.'

Adding further to the mystery, Hynes's Manor team mate Tor Sriachavanon has taken a career-best ninth, sandwiched in the bottom end of the top 10 by Kristian Kolby and Tim Spouge.

Times to follow...