Van der Zande completes pole double

The Dutchman's 1m02.098s best lap edged out team-mate Walter Grubmuller by 0.068 seconds and sealed a Hitech lock-out of the front row for tomorrow's second race.

Van der Zande dominated this session, which was cooler and cloudier than first qualifying. He leapt to the top of the times with his first flying lap, a 1m02.522s, and continued to go quicker on consecutive tours before nailing the fastest time on his fourth effort.

That impressive performance came within the first 10 minutes of the session and although van der Zande failed to improve again, he rubbed his rivals' noses in the metaphorical dust by setting several other laps faster than anyone else could manage.

"Seven hundredths is a huge margin for Snetterton!" quipped the pole man. "I still haven't come off the first position all weekend, so hopefully we can keep it that way in the races. The team is doing really good at the moment, I'm very pleased."

Fortec's Riki Christodoulou will start directly behind the Hitech duo after setting the third fastest time, less than two hundredths adrift of Grubmuller, but 0.126s clear of Carlin's Max Chilton, who completed row two.

Chilton's Australian team-mate Daniel Ricciardo joined the action later than most and could only manage fifth, 0.233s off the pace.

Brazilian Adriano Buzaid will join the championship leader on row three after setting the sixth fastest time, just two hundredths of second clear of team-mate Wayne Boyd. This was by far the T-Sport squad's strongest collective qualifying showing of the season so far.

Victor Garcia (Fortec) showed marked improvement compared with this morning's session to take eighth, just 0.007s clear of the puncture-affected Daisuke Nakajima (Double R) and 0.075s ahead of Jay Bridger (Litespeed), whose Mygale again made it into the top 10.

After setting a tow-assisted second fastest time this morning, Henry Arundel (Carlin) could only manage 11th this time, while persistence paid off for Daniel McKenzie (Fortec), who pounded around relentlessly trying to beat Gabriel Dias (T-Sport) to the National Class pole and finally did so on his 18th lap with five minutes remaining.

Pos  Driver                Team            Car  Time       Gap
 1.  Renger van der Zande  Hitech          D/M  1m02.098s
 2.  Walter Grubmuller     Hitech          D/M  1m02.166s  + 0.068s
 3.  Riki Christodoulou    Fortec          D/M  1m02.184s  + 0.086s
 4.  Max Chilton           Carlin          D/V  1m02.310s  + 0.212s
 5.  Daniel Ricciardo      Carlin          D/V  1m02.331s  + 0.233s
 6.  Adriano Buzaid        T-Sport         D/V  1m02.437s  + 0.339s
 7.  Wayne Boyd            T-Sport         D/V  1m02.457s  + 0.359s
 8.  Victor Garcia         Fortec          D/M  1m02.536s  + 0.438s
 9.  Daisuke Nakajima      Double R        D/M  1m02.543s  + 0.445s
10.  Jay Bridger           Litespeed       M/M  1m02.611s  + 0.513s
11.  Henry Arundel         Carlin          D/V  1m02.704s  + 0.606s
12.  Carlos Huertas        Double R        D/M  1m02.716s  + 0.618s
13.  Daniel McKenzie       Fortec          D/H  1m02.736s  + 0.638s
14.  Gabriel Dias          T-Sport         D/H  1m02.779s  + 0.681s
15.  Hywel Lloyd           CF              D/H  1m03.184s  + 1.086s
16.  Philip Major          Carlin          D/V  1m03.234s  + 1.136s
17.  Stephane Richelmi     Barazi Epsilon  D/M  1m03.466s  + 1.368s
18.  Victor Correa         Litespeed       S/H  1m03.563s  + 1.465s
19.  Aaron Steele          Litespeed       S/H  1m04.343s  + 2.245s
20.  Maxim Snegirev        West-Tec        D/H  1m04.681s  + 2.583s