Qualifying: Sato steamroller continues

Sato set the fastest time in qualifying for the first race by 0.234 seconds. He wasn't happy with that, so really rubbed it in this afternoon by going a full 0.453s ahead of the opposition.

"This morning I wasn't 100 percent happy," he explained. "In my mind I want to always go as quickly as possible, and I felt I hadn't done that. That's normal for a racing driver. Pace wise I could have gone even quicker this afternoon, but the gap is bigger to second so I'm happy with that."

Carlin team-mate Anthony Davidson sits along Sato on the front row for race one, feeling that he didn't quite get the best out of his tyres later in the session, something which didn't enable him to keep pace with his Carlin companion when the pole time was lowered yet further. In the afternoon he tried too hard to catch Sato, ahead of him on the track, and overdrove, consigning him to third on the grid.

The Jaguar Racing Dallara-Mugen of Andre Lotterer took the other front row spot for race two. The German felt he was losing too much time in the slower corners in the morning - through overdriving - and was only seventh, but he put that right later on.

"It's amazing how much time you can lose in the slow corners," sighed the German. "I changed my driving style quite a lot, and I think there was more in there still, but I got blocked at the last corner on my best lap."

A strange tyre malaise affected the Manor Motorsport trio of Derek Hayes, Jeffrey Jones and Mark Taylor. Hayes and Jones were third and fourth in the morning (the best qualifying effort yet by the latter) but found their cars handling appallingly in the afternoon. Taylor, by contrast, languished in the doldrums early on before shooting up to fifth later on.

Lotterer's Jaguar team-mate James Courtney was at a loss to explain his poor form (ninth both times). Maybe his tyres will also be investigated, although the Australian felt that part of this could have been getting used to F3 again after his Formula 1 test at Monza.

By contrast, Matt Davies bounced back with a good day to take a brace of top six grid positions for Team Avanti. Gianmaria Bruni also showed improved form to end the first session fifth.

In the Scholarship Class, title combatants Matthew Gilmore and Robbie Kerr took a pole position apiece.







Takuma Sato (Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1m28.262s
Anthony Davidson (Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1m28.496s
Derek Hayes (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1m28.657s
Jeffrey Jones (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1m28.798s
Gianmaria Bruni (Fortec Dallara-Renault) 1m28.992s
Matt Davies (Team Avanti Dallara-Opel) 1m29.003s
Andre Lotterer (Jaguar Racing Dallara-Mugen) 1m29.059s
Bruce Jouanny (Promatecme Dallara-Mugen) 1m29.082s
James Courtney (Jaguar Racing Dallara-Mugen) 1m29.160s
Ryan Dalziel (Duma Racing Dallara-Mugen) 1m29.189s

Matt Gilmore (Performance Racing Dallara-Opel)



Takuma Sato (Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1m28.427s
Andre Lotterer (Jaguar Racing Dallara-Mugen) 1m28.880s
Anthony Davidson (Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1m28.933s
Matt Davies (Team Avanti Dallara-Opel) 1m29.006s
Mark Taylor (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1m29.082s
Derek Hayes (Manor Motorsport Dallara-Mugen) 1m29.111s
Bruce Jouanny (Promatecme Dallara-Mugen) 1m29.115s
Gianmaria Bruni (Fortec Dallara-Renault) 1m29.167s
James Courtney (Jaguar Racing Dallara-Mugen) 1m29.346s
Andy Priaulx (Alan Docking Racing Dallara-Mugen) 1m29.383s

Robbie Kerr (Fred Goddard Racing Dallara-Renault)