Carroll and Parente score pole
Northern Irishman Adam Carroll and Portuguese driver Alvaro Parente will start at the front of the grid for tomorrow's opening two rounds of the British Formula 3 Championship at Donington Park
In the first session, championship returnee Adam Carroll came out on top of a session-long battle with his P1 Motorsport team-mate Ernesto Viso and pre-season favourite Nelson Piquet Jr.
Carroll and Brazilian ace Piquet traded times right from the start but Carroll's time of 1m02.782s was set just before red flags ended the session, leaving Piquet no chance to better it.
"It is a great result for the team," said Carroll. "We have been struggling a bit with pre-season testing and the circuit was quite tricky in places compared to testing here earlier in the week. I'll be even happier after the race tomorrow though."
Piquet was also denied second on the grid by Carlin Motorsport driver Alvaro Parente, who stole the place in the dying moments of the session. His form was the surprise of the day and he would later go one place better for race two.
Venezuelan Viso looked set to make it a P1 Motorsport front row early in the session but he was bumped down to fourth, behind Piquet, as other drivers improved their times.
Fortec Motorsport's James Rossiter made an impressive F3 debut, taking fifth while Hitech Racing's Renault Development Driver Lucas di Grassi rounded out the top six.
In the second session, Parente's time of 1m02.946s was the quickest of a flurry of times set late in the session by just 0.021s.
Piquet, who will join Parente on the front row for race two, took a turn at the head of the field, as did Carlin driver Clivio Piccione, Carroll and Brazilian Danilo Dirani, who finished third, fourth and fifth.
Malaysian Fairuz Fauzy, who was a revelation in pre-season testing, rounded out the top six for race two.
Formula Palmer Audi graduate Ryan Lewis took the first two Scholarship class poles of the season, with ex-UK Formula Ford racer Stephen Jelley and Australian Barton Mawer second and third in both sessions.
Adam Carroll Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1m02.782s
Alvaro Parente Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1m02.930s
Nelson Piquet Jr Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1m02.962s
Ernesto Viso Dallara F304 Opel-Speiss 1m03.068s
James Rossiter Dallara F304 Opel-Speiss 1m03.470s
Lucas di Grassi Dallara F304 Renault 1m03.480s
Alvaro Parente Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1m02.946s
Nelson Piquet Jr Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1m02.967s
Clivio Piccione Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1m02.988s
Adam Carroll Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1m03.073s
Danilo Dirani Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 1m03.163s
Fairuz Fauzy Dallara F304 Opel-Speiss 1m03.353s
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