Svendsen-Cook takes Brands poles

The Briton has started from reversed grid pole in the past, but this is the first time he has outqualified the field since graduating to F3 from Formula BMW in 2010.

Svendsen-Cook narrowly trailed his championship-leading Carlin team-mate Felipe Nasr for the first half of the session, but two late sub-1m17.8s laps of the Grand Prix circuit were good enough to bag him the top starting spot for this afternoon's first race and tomorrow's 40-minute feature event.

"It's fantastic to bounce back after a disappointing Snetterton," said the double poleman. "The car was fantastic and had really great balance. From the first lap on new tyres I knew I could take pole."

Nasr failed to improve on his second set of tyres and went off at Stirlings on his final flying lap of the session.

By this stage, the Brazilian had already been demoted to third by a stunning effort from Sino Vision's Adderly Fong, who produced his best qualifying performance yet to comfortably outpace team-mate Hywel Lloyd and set the second fastest time and earn a race three front row.

"I was expecting a good result, but that was a bit over my expectations!" said the Chinese team-owner/driver, who will start seventh for this afternoon's opening race.

Carlin's Carlos Huertas, Fortec team-mates Lucas Foresti and Will Buller, plus Hitech's Pietro Fantin were the last drivers to lap sub-1m18s, while Snetterton race winner Kevin Magnussen (Carlin), reigning British Formula Ford champion Scott Pye (Double R) and Carlin's Jazeman Jaafar rounded out a top 10 covered by just over half a second on the 2.4-mile circuit.

Huertas will join team-mate Svendsen-Cook on the front row for race one, on account of his second fastest time, ahead of Nasr, Buller, Jaafar and Foresti.

Fantin, Pye and Magnussen complete the top 10 order for the race one grid.

Grid for race one:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                  Time       Gap
 1.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin Dallara-VW         1m17.763s
 2.  Carlos Huertas        Carlin Dallara-VW         1m17.923s  + 0.160s
 3.  Felipe Nasr           Carlin Dallara-VW         1m17.924s  + 0.161s
 4.  William Buller        Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m17.964s  + 0.201s
 5.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin Dallara-VW         1m18.155s  + 0.392s
 6.  Lucas Foresti         Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m18.156s  + 0.393s
 7.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision Dallara-Merc  1m18.219s  + 0.456s
 8.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech Dallara-VW         1m18.268s  + 0.505s
 9.  Scott Pye             Double R Dallara-Merc     1m18.278s  + 0.515s
10.  Kevin Magnussen       Carlin Dallara-VW         1m18.281s  + 0.518s
11.  Jack Harvey           Carlin Dallara-VW         1m18.390s  + 0.627s
12.  Hywel Lloyd           Sino Vision Dallara-Merc  1m18.768s  + 1.005s
13.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport Dallara-VW        1m18.982s  + 1.219s
14.  Harry Tincknell       Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m18.983s  + 1.220s
15.  Fahmi Ilyas           Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m18.984s  + 1.221s
16.  Pipo Derani           Double R Dallara-Merc     1m19.397s  + 1.634s
17.  Maxim Snegirev        Hitech Dallara-VW         1m19.617s  + 1.854s
18.  Yann Cunha            T-Sport Dallara-VW        1m19.693s  + 1.930s
19.  Bart Hylkema          T-Sport Dallara-Mugen     1m20.791s  + 3.028s
20.  Kotaro Sakurai        Hitech Dallara-Mugen

Grid for race three:

Pos  Driver                Team/Car                  Time       Gap
 1.  Rupert Svendsen-Cook  Carlin Dallara-VW         1m17.614s
 2.  Adderly Fong          Sino Vision Dallara-Merc  1m17.796s  + 0.182s
 3.  Felipe Nasr           Carlin Dallara-VW         1m17.873s  + 0.259s
 4.  Carlos Huertas        Carlin Dallara-VW         1m17.892s  + 0.278s
 5.  Lucas Foresti         Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m17.904s  + 0.290s
 6.  William Buller        Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m17.938s  + 0.324s
 7.  Pietro Fantin         Hitech Dallara-VW         1m17.981s  + 0.367s
 8.  Kevin Magnussen       Carlin Dallara-VW         1m18.090s  + 0.476s
 9.  Scott Pye             Double R Dallara-Merc     1m18.140s  + 0.526s
10.  Jazeman Jaafar        Carlin Dallara-VW         1m18.148s  + 0.534s
11.  Jack Harvey           Carlin Dallara-VW         1m18.341s  + 0.727s
12.  Hywel Lloyd           Sino Vision Dallara-Merc  1m18.389s  + 0.775s
13.  Menasheh Idafar       T-Sport Dallara-VW        1m18.736s  + 1.122s
14.  Harry Tincknell       Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m18.905s  + 1.291s
15.  Fahmi Ilyas           Fortec Dallara-Merc       1m18.931s  + 1.317s
16.  Pipo Derani           Double R Dallara-Merc     1m19.239s  + 1.625s
17.  Maxim Snegirev        Hitech Dallara-VW         1m19.356s  + 1.742s
18.  Yann Cunha            T-Sport Dallara-VW        1m19.629s  + 2.015s
19.  Bart Hylkema          T-Sport Dallara-Mugen     1m20.471s  + 2.857s
20.  Kotaro Sakurai        Hitech Dallara-Mugen      1m23.903s  + 6.289s

Race 1 grid: Second-fastest qualifying times
Race 2 grid: Race 1 finishing order with top 10 reversed
Race 3 grid: Fastest qualifying times