Ricciardo claims Silverstone pole

The points leader joined the action late, but once he left the pit lane the Australian dominated the session, setting five individual laps good enough for pole position.

The Red Bull-backed racer set an emphatic 1m14.783s best on his final flying lap to claim the top spot by 0.197s on a circuit that was clearly slower than yesterday, despite similar weather conditions.

"That's just the way I wanted to start the weekend," said the Carlin driver after claiming his fourth pole of the season. "It's a good couple of tenths gap and we'll see this afternoon if I can get a bit more.

"Touch wood this has been a good circuit for me the few times I've been here, but I'm not going to rest - we've got to keep pushing."

Max Chilton continued his strong Silverstone form and helped lock out the front row for his Carlin team by setting second fastest time.

The Briton won a duel with Hitech's Renger van der Zande for provisional pole in the early part of the session, before slipping back when Ricciardo took to the track. Chilton pipped van der Zande to the front row by just 0.019s - the Dutchman being the only other driver to dip below 1m15s.

Van der Zande's title challenging team-mate Walter Grubmuller made it an all-Hitech second row by setting fourth fastest time.

The Austrian does not like Silverstone and has been struggling so far this weekend - especially in the final sector of the lap. However, an engine switch and some head scratching overnight have enabled him to make a significant improvement relative to rivals.

Colombian rookie Carlos Huertas continued to show well for Double R and set fifth fastest time. He finished almost three tenths adrift of Grubmuller, but managed to edge out Carlin's Henry Arundel by 0.019s to head row three.

It is rare that reigning British Formula Ford champion Wayne Boyd should out qualify his T-Sport team-mate Adriano Buzaid, but he managed it here by setting seventh fastest time.

He was joined on row four by Fortec's Riki Christodoulou, who has been struggling this weekend. Buzaid rounded out the top 10 after being bumped down by a late lap from Daisuke Nakajima (Double R), which propelled the Japanese to ninth on the grid.

T-Sport's Gabriel Dias claimed the National Class pole in 14th place overall.

Pos Driver                  Team        Car    Time           Gap
 1. Daniel Ricciardo        Carlin      D/V    1m14.783s
 2. Max Chilton             Carlin      D/V    1m14.980s  +0.197s
 3. Renger van der Zande    Hitech      D/M    1m14.999s  +0.216s
 4. Walter Grubmuller       CF          D/M    1m15.075s  +0.292s
 5. Carlos Huertas          Double R    D/M    1m15.321s  +0.538s
 6. Henry Arundel           Carlin      D/V    1m15.340s  +0.557s
 7. Wayne Boyd              T-Sport     D/V    1m15.422s  +0.639s
 8. Riki Christodoulou      Fortec      D/M    1m15.442s  +0.659s
 9. Daisuke Nakajima        Double R    D/M    1m15.638s  +0.855s
10. Adriano Buzaid          T-Sport     D/V    1m15.654s  +0.871s
11. Philip Major            Carlin      D/V    1m15.679s  +0.896s
12. Hywel Lloyd             CF          D/H    1m15.815s  +1.032s
13. Victor Garcia           Fortec      D/M    1m16.044s  +1.261s
14. Gabriel Dias            T-Sport     D/H    1m16.140s  +1.357s
15. Daniel McKenzie         Fortec      D/H    1m16.360s  +1.577s
16. Jay Bridger             Litespeed   M/M    1m16.528s  +1.745s
17. Kevin Chen              Double R    D/M    1m16.928s  +2.145s
18. Stephane Richelmi       Barazi      D/M    1m16.967s  +2.184s
19. Michele Faccin          West-Tec    D/H    1m17.332s  +2.549s
20. Victor Correa           Litespeed   S/H    1m18.563s  +3.780s
21. Maxim Snegirev          West-Tec    D/H    1m18.615s  +3.832s
22. Satrio Hermanto         Litespeed   S/H    1m18.371s  +3.588s