Marc Hynes on pole at Croft

Hynes, winner of the opening two rounds of the season, had never before taken an F3 pole. Nor had his team, Manor Motorsport, which counts the Yorkshire track as its local circuit.

The 21-year-old Briton put that right in no uncertain terms, setting five times good enough for pole in the opening session. Only championship leader Luciano Burti, driving a similar Dallara-Mugen Honda run by Stewart Racing, was anywhere near.

In the slower second session both Hynes and Burti spun, but Hynes still set a time faster than anyone else managed all day.

"We've just continued from being fastest on the test day," said Hynes. "We didn't think that Luciano would be as far back as he was in testing, but the rest are, which is pleasing. I was thinking of going for a faster lap in the second session, but my position seemed quite comfortable and I wanted to save my tyres."

Burti said: "We were not competitive in the test, but we made some changes and the car is better. I had a very good lap, maybe good enough for pole, but I got held up in traffic at the last corner. I don't want to make too much of that though, because it's the same for everyone."

The other two drivers to have won races in 1999, Briton Jenson Button and Indian Narain Karthikeyan, will start tomorrow's race from the second row in Promatecme Dallara-Renault and Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen respectively.

While Button was happy, Karthikeyan felt that a fluffed gearshift lost him time which could have promoted him to third.

An off early in the first session gave Andrew Kirkaldy's Stewart Dallara slight damage to its wing, but the team made a few adjustments and he was able to post fifth fastest time ahead of Brazilian Aluizio Coelho, feeling much happier with progress in his Promatecme Dallara.

Fortec Motorsport twins Matt Davies and Kristian Kolby start from the fourth row, Davies suffering gearbox problems, while Toby Scheckter and National Class star Martin O'Connell round out the top 10.