Carlin dominates Thruxton qualifying

The Red Bull-backed Frenchman set two consecutive times good enough to top the session, giving him pole for race one this afternoon, and tomorrow's 40-minute feature race.

Vergne's 1m06.148s best left him 0.125 seconds clear of team-mate James Calado, as five Carlin Dallara-Vokswagens made the top six.

On a damp but drying track, most of the best times came late in the session, which turned into an 11-minute shootout after Raikkonen Robertson's Carlos Huertas crashed on the exit of the Club chicane, relegating the Colombian to the final row of the grid.

Only Fortec's Oli Webb was able to get among the top Carlin cars, setting a fourth fastest time just under four tenths shy of title rival Vergne. The Briton again ran without the main element in his rear wing in the final part of the session and used the low downforce, low drag set-up trialled in yesterday's test to good effect.

Adriano Buzaid produced his best qualifying performance of the season to go third quickest, while team-mates Rupert Svendsen-Cook and Lucas Foresti rounded out the top six. Only Jazeman Jaafar failed to put a Carlin car inside the top six. He wound up 11th fastest.

Hitech's Will Buller sat on provisional pole for much of the early damp running, but slipped down the order as the track dried out. He ended up seventh fastest, ahead of Welshman Hywel Lloyd, who underlined CF Racing/Manor's recent improvement by again making the top 10.

Fortec's Daniel McKenzie and Raikkonen Robertson's Felipe Nasr completed the top 10, while T-Sport's Menasheh Idafar claimed National Class pole in 15th overall, as less than a second covered the top 16 drivers.