Californian Edwards breaks Essex domination...

Ironically, it was broken by a driver from sunny California in soggy conditions reminiscent of a miserable Saturday at the Lakeside Shopping Centre.

Paul Edwards's top spot followed on from a slightly damp but bitterly cold morning session during which Billericay's Matt Davies metaphorically zipped up his Essex shellsuit and maintained his championship leading form.

Both pole men had miserable times in the other sessions: Team Avanti Dallara-Opel driver Davies was 14th in the afternoon after an off ended his running early, while Edwards was one of many to suffer from a surfeit of traffic on the circuit in the morning, when he qualified his Alan Docking Racing Dallara-Mugen 10th.

"As soon as we started the session I knew we had a pole position car," said Edwards after the afternoon run. "We were out here a couple of weeks ago in the damp and we've got just loads of grip. After the last red flag [one of five which truncated the session!] I just got a gap."

In the morning, Davies attributed at least part of his success to Avanti's choice of mildly-scrubbed tyres. With his Avon rubber already having notched up its crucial heat cycle, he had an edge in the chilly conditions.

"It was a good session, but getting more than one clear lap was a miracle," he said.

Derek Hayes and Takuma Sato were the most consistent men of the day. The Northern Irishman was second in the morning and fourth later on, while the Japanese was fourth in the first session (in which he broke down with gearbox problems a few laps from the end) and third later on.

Hayes felt he could have had pole position for the first race, but after at last getting a clear lap he was slightly too cautious out of the Russell chicane and lost a few hundredths of a second.

Ditto Sato, who was a pacesetter all the way but lost the last minutes when the track was finally fully dry.

Rainmaster Andy Priaulx did his usual fine job in the wet afternoon session to qualify second alongside ADR team-mate Edwards, giving the squad its first front-row lock-out since the opening round of 1992 (Marcel Albers and Elton Julian at Donington, for all you anoraks out there).




Matt Davies (Team Avanti Dallara-Opel) 1m02.247s
Derek Hayes (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1m02.281s
Nicolas Kiesa (RC Motorsport Dallara-Opel) 1m02.293s
Takuma Sato (Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1m02.340s
Gianmaria Bruni (Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Renault) 1m02.384s
Andre Lotterer (Jaguar Racing Dallara-Mugen) 1m02.536s
Ryan Dalziel (RC Motorsport Dallara-Opel) 1m02.667s
James Courtney (Jaguar Racing Dallara-Mugen) 1m02.696s
Anthony Davidson (Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1m02.734s
Paul Edwards (Alan Docking Racing Dallara-Mugen) 1m02.750s
Robbie Kerr (Fred Goddard Racing Dallara-Renault) 1m03.683s



Edwards 1m12.415s
Andy Priaulx (Alan Docking Racing Dallara-Mugen) 1m12.487s
Sato 1m12.684s
Hayes 1m12.690s
Kiesa 1m12.861s
Milos Pavlovic (Team Avanti Dallara-Opel) 1m12.870s
Alex Gurney (Fortec Motorsport Dallara-Renault) 1m12.956s
Courtney 1m12.991s
Mark Taylor (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1m13.012s
Bruni 1m13.041s
Kerr 1m13.393s