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Qualifying 1: Klien sweep

Christian Klien kept his stranglehold on Formula 3 pole positions at Zandvoort this season, the Marlboro Masters winner claiming his second Euroseries pole of the day today (Saturday)

In the early morning mist at the Dutch seaside venue, Britain's Adam Carroll (KMS Dallara-Opel) briefly held pole, but Klien (Mucke Dallara-Mercedes) beat it seconds later and then relentless chipped away at his time to set a best of 1m32.938s.

Series leader Ryan Briscoe (Prema Dallara-Opel) was the next to get close to it, but fell 0.045s short. Briscoe off at Tarzan twice in the session and then seemingly defied physics to keep his car out of the Hugenholtz barriers after getting all crossed up on the way into the tight hairpin.

To add to his woe, ASM's Alexandre Premat beat Briscoe's time by 0.001s to grab the second front row slot in his Dallara-Mercedes. Premat, who set his lap right at the end of the session, even found time to spin in the dying seconds.

He wasn't the only one. The session was halted after 10 minutes to retrieve the crashed car of Nico Rosberg, which had gone off around the back of the circuit. A second red flag was required when Philipp Baron went straight on at the Hugenholtz hairpin and thumped heavily into the tyrewall. Yet another was needed when Patrice Manopoulos spun into the tyres on the entry to Hugenholtz with seven minutes of the session remaining.

The top six is the same as for Sunday's grid, only in a different order. Bruno Spengler (ASM) leapt from sixth to fourth, Olivier Pla (ASM) dropped from third to fifth and Markus Winkelhock (Mucke) fell from fourth to sixth, despite looking good early on.

Carroll, meanwhile, dropped down the order and will start 14th, while fellow Brit Jamie Green (Team Kolles Dallara-Mercedes) was a lowly 22nd fastest.

Today's race starts at 14.20 local time (13.20 BST).


1 Christian Klien (Mucke) Dallara-Mercedes 1m32.938s
2 Alexandre Premat (ASM) Dallara-Mercedes 1m32.982s
3 Ryan Briscoe (PREMA) Dallara-Opel 1m32.983s
4 Bruno Spengler (ASM) Dallara-Mercedes 1m33.056s
5 Olivier Pla (ASM) Dallara-Mercedes 1m33.115s
6 Markus Winkelhock (Mucke) Dallara-Mercedes 1m33.140s

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