Parente Grabs Pole at Croft

The Carlin Motorsport driver, who has not yet made a start in British F3 this season after the Spa-Francorchamps round was cancelled on his return to the series, edged out his closest rival by just 0.059 seconds.

There was little to separate the leading drivers, with third fastest Marko Asmer just 0.066 seconds off the pole position time in his Hitech Racing car.

Championship leader Danilo Dirani, who dominated the opening round of the series at Donington Park, was fifth fastest, just behind Christian Bakkerud.

The first session was red flagged just after 10 minutes when Josh Fisher of Team SWR suffered a hefty crash coming out of Sunny - knocking off both his front wheels and damaging his nose and rear wing.

"I spun coming out of Sunny and I missed all tyre barriers and went straight into the wall," said Fisher, who was given the all clear by the circuit's medical team. "The doctors said I am fine. I feel okay. I am just suffering from headaches now. It's a shame, because I was running really well before I went off."

Croft - British F3 First Qualifying

Pos  Driver              Make              Time             Laps
 1.  Alvaro Parente      Dallara F305      1:14.251          14
 2.  Mike Conway         Dallara Opel      1:14.310 + 0.059  12
 3.  Marko Asmer         Dallara F305      1:14.317 + 0.066  14
 4.  Christian Bakkerud  Dallara F305      1:14.643 + 0.392  13
 5.  Danilo Dirani       Lola B05/30       1:14.667 + 0.416  14
 6.  Dan Clarke          Dallara F305      1:14.784 + 0.533  12
 7.  Charlie Kimball     Dallara F305      1:14.804 + 0.553   8
 8.  Bruno Senna         Dallara F305      1:14.934 + 0.683  11
 9.  Steven Kane         Lola B05/30       1:14.966 + 0.715  15
10.  Tim Bridgman        Dallara F305      1:15.030 + 0.779  14
11.  James Walker        Dallara F305      1:15.192 + 0.941  11
12.  Charlie Hollings    Lola-Dome F106/4  1:15.212 + 0.961  19
13.  Ryan Lewis          Dallara F305      1:15.396 + 1.145  15
14.  Salvador Duran      Dallara F304      1:15.515 + 1.264   7
15.  Stephen Jelley      Dallara F305      1:15.609 + 1.358  21
16.  Barton Mawer        Dallara F304      1:15.945 + 1.694  17
17.  Juho Annala         Dallara F304      1:16.038 + 1.787  15
18.  Josh Fisher         Dallara F304      1:16.056 + 1.805   8
19.  Jonathan Kennard    Dallara F304      1:16.204 + 1.953  16
20.  Ronayne O'mahony    Dallara F305      1:16.457 + 2.206  15
21.  Keiko Ihara         Dallara F305      1:16.527 + 2.276  21
22.  Ricardo Teixeira    Dallara F304      1:17.678 + 3.427  20
23.  Nick Jones          Dallara F304      1:18.061 + 3.810  20
24.  Cheong Lou Meng     Dallara F304      1:18.998 + 4.747  14