Qualifying 2: Montin secures pole

Montin had moved to the top of the time sheets after 14 minutes of the session, just jumping clear of provisional pole position man Kousuke Matsuura. Despite the best efforts of his rivals, Montin's best lap of 2m14.995s was enough to secure the crucial top spot for Sunday's double-header.

"It was certainly not easy but from the start of practice yesterday we have done a really good job," said Montin. "In every session we have been near the top and when it mattered I managed to achieve everything very nicely here. I got some perfect laps in the second session and was helped with a slipstream on my fastest lap."

Gommendy was delighted with his second place, but was left kicking himself when he crashed out as he attempted to go even quicker. The French F3 champion had been challenging for the top position for much of the session and made the most of a red flag period near the end to make some changes to his car.

The session had been stopped for several minutes following a spectacular accident by Ronnie Bremer, who had also crashed in first qualifying on Thursday. The Danish driver lost control of his car at the final corner of the track and smashed into the barriers, ripping two wheels off and badly damaging the left hand side of his car.

Gommendy returned to the track at the restart to set his best lap of 2m15.657s before crashing out in the complex of corners at the top of the hill. He damaged the right hand side of the car.

Japanese Matsuura ended qualifying in third position, despite having held provisional pole position on Thursday. He was the only driver in the top 26 not to improve on his time from the first qualifying session and blamed problems with the car.

Finn Heikki Kovalainen secured fourth position for Fortec Motorsport, ahead of Carlin Motorsport's Narain Karthikeyan and Frenchman Olivier Pla, the leading rookie. British F3 champion Robbie Kerr moved up from 24th after the first session to 16th.