Ricciardo: Second pole out of reach

The Australian was attempting to overtake West-Tec's series debutant Michele Faccin at Brooklands in the late stages of the session when the pair made contact.

Faccin spun into the gravel while Ricciardo crabbed his Dallara-Volkswagen back to the pits with broken right-front suspension. Ricciardo still qualified fourth, ahead of main title rival Walter Grubmuller, but was denied the chance to improve his time by the accident.

Nevertheless, he does not believe he could have challenged for the top spot had he been able to stay out on circuit.

"To be honest, everything came in early in that session and if you didn't do your time early on, it was never really going to happen," Ricciardo told AUTOSPORT.

"Obviously I didn't get the cleanest of runs out there and to crash in qualifying is a pain in the arse, but even without it I don't think I could have gone much quicker."

The Red Bull-backed racer, who dominated the first qualifying session en route to his fourth pole of the season, remained philosophical about his relative lack of pace in second qualifying.

"To be on the second row is not bad, but I expected more after a good first session. We didn't change much with the car, but the track changed and I noticed the wind picked up quite a bit. I think we played it safe, whereas the guys who took a punt - it worked [for them]."