Kolby takes pole at Pembrey

The Dane kicked off the double-header meeting by edging out British teenager Jenson Button, who held pole until Kolby went ahead with two minutes to go.

The qualifying session was the only one which counts for tomorrow morning's race.

This afternoon's qualifying session will decide the grid for tomorrow afternoon's race two.

Kolby, who has never won an F3 race, said, 'It's about time I got pole - I've been struggling for so long.

'There was a simple thing in my driving on slow corners which we discovered looking at the computer data.

'Also we've found a lot of grip in the fast corners, so I'm confident there's more time still to come.

'The car stepped out at the back because I was pushing so hard, and that might have cost me time.'

Making it a good day for Fortec Motorsport's Dallara-Mugen Hondas was Matt Davies, who backed up team-mate Kolby by equalling his personal best qualifying position of third.

In between them is the Promatecme UK Dallara-Renault of Button. Along with Kolby, he was able to put a massive 0.4s gap between himself and the rest of the field.

Button actually finished his session two minutes early and was returning to the pits when Kolby pipped him.

'I'd already used the best of my tyres. I could tell I wasn't going to go any quicker,' he said.

In contrast with the gap ahead of him, Davies headed a six-car gaggle covered by just 0.08s and containing title contenders Luciano Burti and Marc Hynes in fourth and seventh respectively.

For Hynes it was a massive comedown after beating the best in Europe in last week's Marlboro Masters of F3 at Zandvoort.

'This has brought us back down to earth,' he said glumly. 'We have oversteer and I'm seventh - just where I don't want to be.'

Narain Karthikeyan and Andrew Kirkaldy will start Between Burti and Hynes.