Grubmuller takes maiden F3 pole
Austrian racer Walter Grubmuller claimed pole position for race two during British Formula 3 second qualifying at Oulton Park this afternoon
Like fellow championship veteran Max Chilton in this morning's session, Grubmuller was the only driver to break through the 1m27s barrier and thus took his first ever British F3 pole.
He topped the timesheet early on in his family-owned Hitech Racing-run Dallara-Mercedes - setting a 1m29.411s on his third lap and continuing to lower his own benchmark time in an impressive sequence of laps during the session.
Grubmuller set a 1m28.682s on his next tour, then 1m28.512s on his sixth lap, 1m28.192s on his seventh, 1m28.121s on his eighth and finally a 1m27.921s on his ninth effort.
Australian Carlin driver Daniel Ricciardo found only 0.002s of a second compared with session one, but his 1m28.103s lap was good enough for another front row start.
Fortec's Riki Christodoulou produced a late flurry to nab third spot from race one poleman Chilton with five minutes left, while Nick Tandy produced an identical 1m28.354s lap with just 60 seconds remaining to leap onto the second row in his Mygale-Mercedes.
That bumped Chilton down to row three ahead of the two Raikkonen Robertson Racing cars. This time, Colombian Carlos Huertas outpaced Japanese team-mate Daisuke Nakajima by 0.041s to round out the top six.
An engine change between sessions for Carlin driver Oliver Oakes did little for his prospects, as he again found himself mired in the lower reaches of the top 10.
Privateer Welshman Hywel Lloyd managed a career-best ninth fastest time, while T-Sport's two rookies again struggled - Adriano Buzaid and Wayne Boyd were both well over a second adrift of the pace.
Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap 1. Walter Grubmuller Hitech D/M 1m27.921s 2. Daniel Ricciardo Carlin D/V 1m28.103s +0.182 3. Riki Christodoulou Fortec D/M 1m28.354s +0.433 4. Nick Tandy JTR M/M 1m28.354s +0.433 5. Max Chilton Carlin D/V 1m28.416s +0.495 6. Carlos Huertas Double R D/M 1m28.567s +0.646 7. Daisuke Nakajima Double R D/M 1m28.608s +0.687 8. Henry Arundel Carlin D/V 1m28.733s +0.812 9. Hywel Lloyd CF D/H 1m28.939s +1.018 10. Oliver Oakes Carlin D/V 1m28.950s +1.029 11. Adriano Buzaid T-Sport D/V 1m29.248s +1.327 12. Victor Garcia Fortec D/M 1m29.465s +1.544 13. Jay Bridger West-Tec M/H 1m29.554s +1.633 14. Wayne Boyd T-Sport D/V 1m29.604s +1.683 15. Gabriel Dias T-Sport (N) D/H 1m29.867s +1.946 16. Daniel McKenzie Fortec (N) D/H 1m29.964s +2.043 17. Stephane Richelmi Barazi Epsilon D/M 1m31.193s +3.272 18. Max Snegirev West-Tec (N) D/H 1m31.772s +3.851
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