Paffett switches to Opel; Kiesa to GM

The English driver, currently sixth in the points standings but already with a win under his belt, was fourth quickest in his first qualifying session with the Spiess-tuned engine at Norisring today (Friday).

"It was good, I was able to put in some consistently quick lap times," said former McLaren Autosport BRDC award winner Paffett. "The engine is really good. It's definitely not lacking straightline speed, but it's mainly in the torque department that I've felt the difference - it's got a lot of acceleration."

Paffett believes a test run at Bitburg airfield on Tuesday also enhanced his chances this weekend at the bumpy Nuremburg street circuit.

"We found some bumps on the airfield and playing with the settings," he said. "It was well worthwhile and gave us a good starting point to work from today."

Meanwhile, British F3 refugee Nicolas Kiesa has joined the GM Motorsport squad in Germany after his deal with RC Motorsport in the UK turned sour. He qualified an impressive sixth in qualifying for Sunday's race at his first attempt.

"It's quite interesting to come over here and compare it to Britain," he said. "I think it's a lot more competitive between the teams here. In Britain, it's just Carlin and Jaguar who are fighting it out. If you lose a tenth here, you've lost three places."

Kiesa's deal with GM is for a couple of races in its Toyota-powered Dallara, but he will not be part of its two-car squad for the British GP support race. The Dane is looking to ease himself into the fray tomorrow in the first of two races.

"I'm not looking to win first time out, I'm after regular top three finishes," he said. "I think they drive quite hard here, so I'm going to take it a little cautiously for the first race, because I hear it's pretty rough out there."

Pierre Kaffer set pole position for Sunday's German F3 race at the Norisring. The German's Team Kolles Dallara-Opel was 0.188secs quicker than his Japanese title rival Toshihiro Kaneishi (BSR Dallara-Opel). Nicolas Stelandre was third quickest, but crashed his JB Motorsport Dallara-Opel heavily at the chicane. He starts ahead of Paffett, Markus Winkelhock (Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Opel) and Kiesa.