Ericsson takes pole on British return

The Swedish ace, who has taken advantage of a gap in the Japanese F3 calendar to race for Raikkonen Robertson in Britain this weekend, stole the top spot in the final third of the session after a late skirmish with three rivals.

Carlin's Max Chilton (Dallara-Volkswagen) held the top spot heading into the final part of the session, with a 1m12.638s best, before Hitech's Renger van der Zande dislodged him from the top spot with a time 0.033 seconds quicker.

No sooner had the Dutchman wrested top spot from Chilton before the latter's Carlin team-mate Henry Arundel shaved another 0.041s off the benchmark to take the pole.

With just over six and a half minutes of the session remaining, Ericsson responded to Arundel's effort by immediately banging in a 1m12.443s best. Van der Zande and Fortec's Riki Christodoulou both found some extra speed to bump Arundel down to row two, but could not beat Ericsson's mark.

An increase in track temperature from 28C this morning to 35C this afternoon produced a slower session, with many drivers struggling to manage their tyres effectively. Half a second covered the top 15 drivers.

"That was fantastic. It was a good lap and the car was feeing amazing," said Ericsson, having claimed his third career pole in British F3 and Double R's first of the season.

"It's been so close in the times all weekend, so to be on the top spot is great. I think we will have a good race setup as well, so hopefully we can continue our form from today into tomorrow."

JTR's Nick Tandy (Mygale-Mercedes) managed a time good enough for row three, edging Chilton out by just three one hundredths of a second.

Ericsson's Double R team-mate Daisuke Nakajima again qualified seventh, while Carlos Huertas endured a nightmare session and wound up only 14th.

Nakajima's Dallara-Mercedes will line up alongside championship leader Daniel Ricciardo, who struggled for pace this afternoon having claimed pole for race one earlier in the day.

T-Sport's championship class drivers Adriano Buzaid and Wayne Boyd showed improved form this afternoon, having struggled in the heat in first qualifying. The pair found enough time to carry themselves into the top 10 and lock out row five.

They outpaced their national class team-mate Gabriel Dias, who again claimed the class pole in 13th overall this time, by less than a tenth.

Pos  Driver                Team            Car  Time
 1.  Marcus Ericsson       Double R        D/M  1m12.443s
 2.  Riki Christodoulou    Fortec          D/M  1m12.515s  + 0.072s
 3.  Renger van der Zande  Hitech          D/M  1m12.531s  + 0.088s
 4.  Henry Arundel         Carlin          D/V  1m12.564s  + 0.121s
 5.  Nick Tandy            JTR             M/M  1m12.608s  + 0.165s
 6.  Max Chilton           Carlin          D/V  1m12.638s  + 0.195s
 7.  Daisuke Nakajima      Double R        D/M  1m12.651s  + 0.208s
 8.  Daniel Ricciardo      Carlin          D/V  1m12.796s  + 0.353s
 9.  Adriano Buzaid        T-Sport         D/V  1m12.829s  + 0.386s
10.  Wayne Boyd            T-Sport         D/V  1m12.833s  + 0.390s
11.  Walter Grubmuller     Hitech          D/M  1m12.842s  + 0.399s
12.  Hywel Lloyd           CF              D/H  1m12.887s  + 0.444s
13.  Gabriel Dias          T-Sport         D/H  1m12.908s  + 0.465s
14.  Carlos Huertas        Double R        D/M  1m12.914s  + 0.471s
15.  Victor Garcia         Fortec          D/M  1m12.943s  + 0.500s
16.  Daniel McKenzie       Fortec          D/H  1m13.656s  + 1.213s
17.  Stephane Richelmi     Barazi Epsilon  D/M  1m13.674s  + 1.231s
18.  Jay Bridger           Litespeed       M/M  1m13.814s  + 1.371s
19.  Victor Correa         Litespeed       S/H  1m14.674s  + 2.231s
20.  Maxim Snegirev        West-Tec        D/H  1m14.941s  + 2.498s