Hayes and Davidson take pole apiece

The reason was the Turn 1 chicane, in which cars dive down momentarily off the banking into a right-left flick reminiscent of the old Monaco harbour front S-bend, but with a car-launching kerb on the second apex.

Both Hayes and Davidson kept their most lurid moments for the second session. Davidson got sideways off the banking and clattered over the kerbs in a dusty spill. Meanwhile Hayes's front end skewed high into the air for a good 30 or 40 metres in something which looked like an old drag racing horror crash video before the Dallara mercifully came down to land.

Both sessions began on a damp circuit, the first wetter than the second, meaning that times in the earlier session were something of a lottery as drivers improved on successive laps.

Hayes did a good job to take his third successive British F3 pole in his Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen.

"I'm very happy being on pole - the team's done a super job," he effervesced. "To be honest I made too many mistakes on my pole lap, but it was still a good one."

Carlin Motorsport duo Takuma Sato and Davidson were second and third, both missing out on one last shot when the session was red-flagged with a minute to go when Atsushi Katsumata spun off the circuit.

Davidson came good in the second session, in which he was quickest virtually throughout. "It was payback time for that chicane!" sneered the Pau winner of his moment. "I'm well happy for the team and I'm beginning to understand the car a lot more now. I'm getting there on set-up and feedback - it's like learning a new language and I'm 50% of the way there now."

Sato popped up with a good time on the last lap to take second again, but Hayes felt he had overdriven (chicane spill notwithstanding) on his way to a disappointing eighth place on the grid.

Andre Lotterer bounced back to form to take third for race two - Jaguar Racing's German star should have placed similarly in the first qualifying session, but fell off the circuit with five minutes to go.

Team mate James Courtney, meanwhile, was fifth despite murdering an innocent rabbit exiting the hairpin onto the banking and being forced to pit while entrails were removed from his Dallara.

Yugoslav Milos Pavlovic had a good day to place fourth and fifth for Team Avanti, while Mark Taylor finished a best ever fourth on the grid for race one.

Scholarship Class honours were shared by Ernani Judice and Robbie Kerr.


Derek Hayes (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1:33.896
Takuma Sato (Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1:34.110
Anthony Davidson (Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1:34.242
Mark Taylor (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1:34.532
Milos Pavlovic (Team Avanti Dallara-Opel) 1:34.671
Andy Priaulx (Alan Docking Racing Dallara-Mugen) 1:34.786
James Courtney (Jaguar Racing Dallara-Mugen) 1:34.786
Jeffrey Jones (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1:34.808
Paul Edwards (Alan Docking Racing Dallara-Mugen) 1:34.909
Andre Lotterer (Jaguar Racing Dallara-Mugen) 1:34.919


Ernani Judice (Parker Racing Dallara-Mugen) 1:35.704

Qualifying results, race 2
Pos Driver Team Car Time
Davidson 1:33.524
Sato 1:33.835
Lotterer 1:33.997
Pavlovic 1:34.375
Courtney 1:34.378
Nicolas Kiesa (RC Motorsport Dallara-Opel) 1:34.475
Jones 1:34.502
Hayes 1:34.504
Matt Davies (Team Avanti Dallara-Opel) 1:34.520
Gianmaria Bruni (Fortec Renault Dallara-Renault) 1:34.577


Robbie Kerr (Fred Goddard Racing Dallara-Renault) 1:35.210