Qualifying: Sato out front in the wet

Sato finished a clear second ahead of his nearest rival Andy Priaulx, who took full advantage of his local knowledge of the Northamptonshire circuit to grab second place, while Sato's Carlin Motorsport team mate Anthony Davidson finished third.

Heavy rainfall presented the drivers with water-logged conditions at the start, but Sato set the pace from early in the 25-minute session and was always at least a second ahead of the rest of the field. Michael Keohane brought out the red flags by spinning off at Stowe corner just over halfway through, leaving the drivers with 10 minutes at the end to jockey for position on a drying track.

Sato simply did the best job in the conditions and finished comfortably on pole, 1.108s ahead of Priaulx. And the British American Racing test driver is confident of doing well on Sunday, come rain or shine.

"I knew I could get pole and I should be okay in the race," Sato told Autosport.com. "Whether it's wet or dry, it really doesn't matter. I like the wet and I like the dry."

Priaulx did well to finish second and took pole at the Silverstone British F3 Championship finale last year and took second place in the race, so the Guernseyman should be a force on Sunday.

McLaren Autosport BRDC Award winner Davidson could have done with a few more laps to get on terms with his team mate, but was happy to have bagged third place. However, with qualifying as important as it is in F3, the 22-year-old does not expect to be able to win the race.

"If all things are equal and fair," said Davidson, "then I don't really expect to be able to win. I've got two fast starters ahead of me, so a close second to Sato is what I'd like."

Ryan Dalziel continued to show his upturn in form since ditching the RC Motorsport squad in favour of the Duma racing team by finishing fourth, ahead of on-form man Derek Hayes. The Ulsterman, like most everybody else, was troubled by the traffic and did well to get round without any contact.

"To be honest I'm happy with that," he said, "because it was just a complete lottery. You might just as well have pulled the names out of a hat."

Andre Lotterer was top of the Jaguar drivers in sixth while team mate James Courtney rounded out the top 10 behind Gianmaria Bruni and Paul Edwards.


16 Takuma Sato (J) Carlin Motorsport Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 2m01.876s
18 Andy Priaulx (GB) Alan Docking Racing Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 2m02.984s
5 Anthony Davidson (GB) Carlin Motorsport Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 2m03.398s
28 Ryan Dalziel Duma Racing Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 2m03.970s
1 Derek Hayes (GB) Manor Motorsport Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 2m03.977s
3 Andre Lotterer (D) Jaguar Racing F3 Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 2m04.198s
8 Gianmaria Bruni (I) Fortec Motorsport Dallara F301 Renault Sodemo 2m04.718s
17 Paul Edwards (USA) Alan Docking Racing Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 2m04.870s
27 Jamie Spence (GB) Duma Racing Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 2m05.383s
4 James Courtney (AUS) Jaguar Racing F3 Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda 2m05.669s