Kevin Magnussen takes both British Formula 3 poles at Paul Ricard

The Dane's championship leading Carlin team-mate Felipe Nasr led the way in the first half of the session, but Magnussen made the best use of his second set of new tyres to once again find the crucial tenths needed to upstage his Brazilian rival.

As at the Nurburgring last time out, where Magnussen took his maiden poles in the category, the Dane set two consecutive laps good enough to top the times. His 2m00.426s best gave him the top starting spot for tomorrow's 40-minute feature race, while a 2m00.528s lap next time around was enough to beat Nasr to pole for this afternoon's 30-minute opener as well.

Runaway points leader Nasr ended up 0.235 seconds adrift of Magnussen. He set a 2m00.661s best on his first set of tyres, but could not improve his time thereafter and conceded the fight for pole by pitting with three minutes of the session remaining.

Hitech's Antonio Felix da Costa looked to have the pace to challenge for pole but came up short by just under three tenths of a second. He will start alongside Carlin's Carlos Huertas on row three for both of the main points-paying races.

Rookie Jack Harvey produced his best qualifying performance yet to go fifth fastest. The 2010 Formula BMW Europe runner-up pipped Carlin team-mate Rupert Svendsen-Cook by just one hundredth of a second as this pair rounded out the top six.

Hitech's Pietro Fantin lapped consistently within the 2m01.3s bracket to wind up seventh fastest, just under a tenth clear of Fortec's Will Buller, who was the fastest of the Mercedes powered runners in eighth.

Carlin's Jazeman Jaafar and Buller's Fortec team-mate Lucas Foresti rounded out a top 10 covered by 1.418s.

Race one grid:

Pos  Driver                  Team/Car                  Time       Gap
 1.  Kevin Magnussen         Carlin Dallara-VW         2m00.528s
 2.  Felipe Nasr             Carlin Dallara-VW         2m00.691s  + 0.163s
 3.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Hitech Dallara-VW         2m00.870s  + 0.342s
 4.  Carlos Huertas          Carlin Dallara-VW         2m00.943s  + 0.415s
 5.  Jack Harvey             Carlin Dallara-VW         2m01.060s  + 0.532s
 6.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook    Carlin Dallara-VW         2m01.105s  + 0.577s
 7.  Pietro Fantin           Hitech Dallara-VW         2m01.358s  + 0.830s
 8.  William Buller          Fortec Dallara-Merc       2m01.544s  + 1.016s
 9.  Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin Dallara-VW         2m01.628s  + 1.100s
10.  Lucas Foresti           Fortec Dallara-Merc       2m02.102s  + 1.574s
11.  Menasheh Idafar         T-Sport Dallara-VW        2m02.161s  + 1.633s
12.  Bart Hylkema            T-Sport Dallara-VW        2m02.178s  + 1.650s
13.  Harry Tincknell         Fortec Dallara-Merc       2m02.220s  + 1.692s
14.  Fahmi Ilyas             Fortec Dallara-Merc       2m02.313s  + 1.785s
15.  Scott Pye               Double R Dallara-Merc     2m02.409s  + 1.881s
16.  Pipo Derani             Double R Dallara-Merc     2m02.489s  + 1.961s
17.  Hywel Lloyd             Sino Vision Dallara-Merc  2m02.515s  + 1.987s
18.  Yann Cunha              T-Sport Dallara-VW        2m02.766s  + 2.238s
19.  Adderly Fong            Sino Vision Dallara-Merc  2m04.201s  + 3.673s
20.  Kotaro Sakurai          Hitech Dallara-Mugen      2m05.451s  + 4.923s

Race three grid:

Pos  Driver                  Team/Car                  Time       Gap
 1.  Kevin Magnussen         Carlin Dallara-VW         2m00.426s
 2.  Felipe Nasr             Carlin Dallara-VW         2m00.661s  + 0.235s
 3.  Antonio Felix da Costa  Hitech Dallara-VW         2m00.713s  + 0.287s
 4.  Carlos Huertas          Carlin Dallara-VW         2m00.937s  + 0.511s
 5.  Jack Harvey             Carlin Dallara-VW         2m00.993s  + 0.567s
 6.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook    Carlin Dallara-VW         2m01.003s  + 0.577s
 7.  Pietro Fantin           Hitech Dallara-VW         2m01.317s  + 0.891s
 8.  William Buller          Fortec Dallara-Merc       2m01.400s  + 0.974s
 9.  Jazeman Jaafar          Carlin Dallara-VW         2m01.610s  + 1.184s
10.  Lucas Foresti           Fortec Dallara-Merc       2m01.844s  + 1.418s
11.  Harry Tincknell         Fortec Dallara-Merc       2m01.900s  + 1.474s
12.  Menasheh Idafar         T-Sport Dallara-VW        2m02.095s  + 1.669s
13.  Bart Hylkema            T-Sport Dallara-VW        2m02.139s  + 1.713s
14.  Scott Pye               Double R Dallara-Merc     2m02.236s  + 1.810s
15.  Fahmi Ilyas             Fortec Dallara-Merc       2m02.278s  + 1.852s
16.  Hywel Lloyd             Sino Vision Dallara-Merc  2m02.435s  + 2.009s
17.  Pipo Derani             Double R Dallara-Merc     2m02.462s  + 2.036s
18.  Yann Cunha              T-Sport Dallara-VW        2m02.550s  + 2.124s
19.  Adderly Fong            Sino Vision Dallara-Merc  2m03.923s  + 3.497s
20.  Kotaro Sakurai          Hitech Dallara-Mugen      2m04.885s  + 4.459s

Race one grid: Second-fastest qualifying times
Race two grid: Race one results with top eight reversed
Race three grid: Fastest qualifying times