Parente Takes Second Croft Pole
Alvaro Parente made it a clean sweep of pole positions for this weekend's British Formula Three races at Croft after again edging out Mike Conway in the second qualifying session on Saturday
The Portuguese, who had also been fastest in the morning's first qualifying session, set a best lap of 1:14.639 to again just out-pace out his closest rivals. And although the gap was slightly larger than the six-hundredths that separated the top three in the morning session, there was still not much in it.
Parente was obviously delighted with his second pole - especially since he believed he could have gone even faster.
"I caught a car at the hairpin on my best lap and had to take the inside line which cost me a bit of time - but it was still good enough for pole," he said. "If the conditions are the same for tomorrow I won't be changing anything on the car."
Conway, who was also second fastest in first qualifying, was just 0.093 seconds behind Parente, with Carlin Motorsport's Christian Bakkerud setting the third fastest time - just two tenths of a second off the pole position time.
Marko Asmer set the fourth fastest time, ahead of Charlie Kimball and Championship leader Danilo Dirani, who lost time during the session in the pits thanks to a gear selection problem.
The second session was red-flagged once, after Tim Bridgman stopped on the track with a mechanical problem.
Croft - British F3 Second Qualifying
Pos Driver Make Time Laps 1. Alvaro Parente Dallara F305 1:14.639 16 2. Mike Conway Dallara 1:14.732 + 0.093 19 3. Christian Bakkerud Dallara F305 1:14.838 + 0.199 11 4. Marko Asmer Dallara F305 1:14.958 + 0.319 16 5. Charlie Kimball Dallara F305 1:15.156 + 0.517 15 6. Danilo Dirani Lola B05/30 1:15.194 + 0.555 14 7. Ryan Lewis Dallara F305 1:15.257 + 0.618 16 8. Tim Bridgman Dallara F305 1:15.264 + 0.625 10 9. Charlie Hollings Lola-Dome F106/4 1:15.406 + 0.767 20 10. Dan Clarke Dallara F305 1:15.409 + 0.770 16 11. James Walker Dallara F305 1:15.421 + 0.782 11 12. Bruno Senna Dallara F305 1:15.447 + 0.808 19 13. Stephen Jelley Dallara F305 1:15.862 + 1.223 23 14. Steven Kane Lola B05/30 1:15.907 + 1.268 13 15. Salvador Duran Dallara F304 1:15.991 + 1.352 15 16. Barton Mawer Dallara F304 1:16.148 + 1.509 19 17. Jonathan Kennard Dallara F304 1:16.254 + 1.615 20 18. Ronayne O'mahony Dallara F305 1:16.376 + 1.737 20 19. Juho Annala Dallara F304 1:16.472 + 1.833 17 20. Josh Fisher Dallara F304 1:16.801 + 2.162 18 21. Keiko Ihara Dallara F305 1:17.079 + 2.440 21 22. Ricardo Teixeira Dallara F304 1:17.148 + 2.509 16 23. Nick Jones Dallara F304 1:17.965 + 3.326 21 24. Cheong Lou Meng Dallara F304 1:19.789 + 5.150 18
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