Dutch domination at Zandvoort

The squad's German F3 Championship pairing of Thomas Mutsch and South African Etienne van der Linde topped their respective halves of the massive 46-car entry, outpacing the cream of the British, French and Italian series with their Dallara-Opels.

Mutsch, who has taken only one pole position in the German series, said, 'I'm surprised. When I came here I thought I'd be in the top three or four in my group. To be on pole position is OK.'

Van der Linde, last year's Formula Opel Euroseries champion, said, 'I didn't really have a decent run. I'd start pushing and then halfway through the lap there'd be yellow flags.

'I could have gone quicker and maybe taken pole position.'

All the times were set in the opening qualifying sessions yesterday afternoon.

Heavy rain this morning meant that no one was able to improve. Mutsch slithered off the road at the infamous Tarzanbocht hairpin, but incurred no damage.

Top British championship representative is Marc Hynes. The Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen driver was second in his group behind Mutsch.

He believed he could have taken pole, but a leaking damper in free practice meant that the Englishman had to use his team mate's for qualifying.

Then Hynes had to park the car a few minutes before the end of the session so the team could fit it back on the sister car.

'I did my fastest time and then I had to come in, so that's a bit of a shame,' he summed up.

Alongside Hynes is French championship leader Sebastien Bourdais in his La Filiere Martini-Opel. Dutchmen Christijan Albers and Walter van Lent form the third rank, followed by Austrian Robert Lechner and Swede Peter Sundberg the Italian series leader.

Then comes a clutch of British championship runners. On the fifth row are Toby Scheckter (Speedsport Dallara-Mugen) and Kristian Kolby (Fortec Dallara-Mugen), and on the sixth are Promatecme Dallara-Renault twin Aluizio Coelho and Jenson Button.

Narain Karthikeyan crashed in free practice and missed some qualifying time while his Carlin Motorsport Dallara was repaired, but will start from the eighth rank.

Kolby's Fortec team mate Matt Davies went off on the third lap of qualifying and will be forced to compete in this afternoon's last-chance qualification race from the back of the grid.

Scheckter gave himself a further boost by setting fastest time overall in the wet this morning, and is keeping his fingers crossed for bad weather tomorrow.