Hynes' pole keeps pressure on Burti

Hynes, who narrowly trails Brazilian Luciano Burti in the championship standings, battled for the top spot with F3 rookie Jenson Button before shading the verdict by 0.106s in his Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen Honda.

Button's Promatecme UK Dallara-Renault was comfortably ahead of third-placed Burti.

Button was really scoring in the tight, twisty Esses and hairpins at the end of the lap on the Grand Prix circuit loop, where he was far quicker than anyone else.

By contrast, Hynes and Burti were superior in the faster corners over the first half of the lap.

'I had to push much harder than in the first session,' said Hynes.

'The car felt good and I had a bit of momentum after setting the fastest time yesterday. Today the circuit had better rubber on it.

'The car was very understeery over the first few laps on new tyres. The next lap I just threw it into fast corners and used the boost button to set a good time.'

Only a late effort managed to net Burti a second row spot after his Stewart Racing team had made overnight changes to his Dallara-Mugen.

'We're one session behind,' said the series leader. 'Maybe with another half an hour we'd be in much better shape.'

Toby Scheckter put in his best qualifying effort of his F3 career to take fourth on the grid in his Speedsport Dallara-Mugen, heading Narain Karthikeyan (Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) and Aluizio Coelho in the second Promatecme car.

Rounding out the top 10 are Andrew Kirkaldy, Tim Spouge, National Class champion elect Martin O'Connell and Pembrey winner Kristian Kolby.

Kolby and Fortec Motorsport team mate Matt Davies (13th) are both in dire problems. The latter in particular is suffering with persistently glazing brake discs and pads, while the Dane has a lack of grip.