Qualifying 1: Piquet on pole again

Championship leader Alan van der Merwe could only manage fourth, behind Manor Motorsport's on-form Clivio Piccione, although little over 0.1s covered the front two rows of the grid. With overtaking more feasible at Rockingham than at many other tracks and Van der Merwe starting behind his main title rivals, an entertaining race looks likely.

Having damaged his Dallara in a kerb-launching incident at Rockingham's increasingly notorious first chicane during testing, Danny Watts gave his Hi-Tech team a fair amount of work to due prior to qualifying. The Castle Combe winner rewarded them with a strong fifth on the grid, 0.306s off pole position.

Robert Dahlgren, Ronnie Bremer, Fairuz Fauzy, Richard Antinucci and Will Power completed the top ten.

In the Scholarship class, Karun Chandhok was fastest and will start just ahead of rival Ernesto Viso.

There was high drama in the Menu Motorsport camp. Rob Austin is an absentee after breaking his hand playing rugby on Thursday night. Team-mate Adam Carroll will start 25th and last after a series of dramas, beginning with an engine failure in pre-race testing. The repaired Dallara lasted just two laps in qualifying before stopping on track with a different fault. While disastrous for the team, the prospect of the spectacular Carroll charging through the field should be a highlight for race day spectators.





1 Nelson Piquet Jr Piquet Sports Dallara-Mugen Honda 1m28.652s
2 Jamie Green Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen Honda 1m28.688s
3 Clivio Piccione Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen Honda 1m28.746s
4 Alan van der Merwe Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen Honda 1m28.798s
5 Danny Watts Hi-Tech Dallara-Renault 1m28.958s
6 Robert Dahlgren Fortec Dallara-Renault 1m29.023s
7 Ronnie Bremer Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen Honda 1m29.089s
8 Fairuz Fauzy Promatecme Dallara-Mugen Honda 1m29.110s
9 Richard Antinucci Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen Honda 1m29.178s
10 Will Power Fortec Dallara-Renault 1m29.227s