Ricciardo dominates Brands qualifying

Free from the pressure of driving for the championship, having closed out the title race in the Algarve last weekend, the Australian Carlin driver has dominated every session of the weekend so far and carried that form into qualifying.

Red Bull-backed Ricciardo lapped the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit in a 1m17.207s best - his fastest of the weekend so far - to claim pole by 0.311s from team-mate Max Chilton.

"It wasn't a bad session," said the poleman. "But I'm a little disappointed because I would have liked to get into the 1m16s.

"I've got another shot this afternoon though and I can't be too disappointed with my lap time. I've yet to get two poles and two wins in a race meeting, so there's still things to aim for even though the championship is done."

Series qualifying specialist Chilton, who was third fastest in testing yesterday, closed the gap from six tenths to three and had to be content with playing bridesmaid on the front row of the grid.

Fortec's Riki Christodoulou, who spoke of finding time from his driving before qualifying, found over two tenths compared with yesterday to qualify third - his best showing since Snetterton in July, where he won his first and so far only F3 race.

Christodoulou's 1m17.745s best edged out series returnee Marcus Ericsson by just 0.034s. Helped by the fitting of a fresh Mercedes motor into his Dallara-Mercedes, the Swede led a Double R lock-out of the remaining top six spots.

Colombian rookie Carlos Huertas, who was off the pace yesterday, became the seventh driver to lap below 1m18s this weekend and qualified fifth, 0.177s clear of Daisuke Nakajima.

The Japanese was second fastest in testing, but spun at Paddock Hill in the middle of the session and brought out the red flags. He recovered to set a late 1m18.017s lap - good enough for sixth, but one and a half tenths slower than he managed yesterday.

Nakajima's time edged Hitech Racing's Walter Grubmuller, who also pulled out a late best lap, down to seventh spot and also dropped Carlin team-mates Philip Major and Henry Arundel down to eighth and ninth.

T-Sport's Adriano Buzaid lapped in the 1m17s yesterday, but, after breaking his nose section with an off in qualifying, could only manage the 10th fastest time, over a second off the pace.

His National Class team-mate Gabriel Dias grabbed yet another class pole by setting a time good enough for 13th overall.

Pos  Driver              Team       Car  Time       Gap
 1.  Daniel Ricciardo    Carlin     D/V  1m17.207s
 2.  Max Chilton         Carlin     D/V  1m17.518s  + 0.311s
 3.  Riki Christodoulou  Fortec     D/M  1m17.745s  + 0.538s
 4.  Marcus Ericsson     Double R   D/M  1m17.779s  + 0.572s
 5.  Carlos Huertas      Double R   D/M  1m17.840s  + 0.633s
 6.  Daisuke Nakajima    Double R   D/M  1m18.017s  + 0.810s
 7.  Walter Grubmuller   Hitech     D/M  1m18.057s  + 0.850s
 8.  Philip Major        Carlin     D/V  1m18.207s  + 1.000s
 9.  Henry Arundel       Carlin     D/V  1m18.263s  + 1.056s
10.  Adriano Buzaid      T-Sport    D/V  1m18.334s  + 1.127s
11.  Wayne Boyd          T-Sport    D/V  1m18.508s  + 1.301s
12.  Victor Garcia       Fortec     D/M  1m18.631s  + 1.424s
13.  Gabriel Dias        T-Sport    D/H  1m18.903s  + 1.696s
14.  Jay Bridger         Litespeed  M/H  1m19.073s  + 1.866s
15.  Hywel Lloyd         CF         D/H  1m19.387s  + 2.180s
16.  Joe Ghanem          Carlin     D/H  1m20.421s  + 3.214s
17.  Daniel McKenzie     Fortec     D/H  1m20.499s  + 3.292s
18.  Maxim Snegirev      West-Tec   D/H  1m21.414s  + 4.207s
19.  Victor Correa       Litespeed  S/H  1m21.708s  + 4.501s
20.  Qinghua Ma          West-Tec   D/H  1m22.901s  + 5.694s