Carroll takes Silverstone pole

Nelson Piquet Jr looked to have snatched the top spot, but he set his best time under yellow flags and it was subsequently disallowed. This moved Carroll into pole and created an all-British front row, with championship leader Lewis Hamilton taking second.

It was a chaotic session. New BCN signing Luca Filippi blotted his copybook early on with a spin in the complex, while Fairuz Fauzy had a sizable shunt after a hooking a wheel over the grass in Maggotts.

Hiro Yoshimoto spun the second BCN car at Woodcote, while Piquet did a brief pirouette at Maggotts on his first run.

Mike Conway kept out of trouble on his series debut and will line up 20th for tomorrow afternoon's race.

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time                Laps
 1.  Carroll       Racing Engineering        1:29.104              9
 2.  Hamilton      ART Grand Prix            1:29.108  +   0.004  12
 3.  Premat        ART Grand Prix            1:29.134  +   0.030  12
 4.  Piquet Jr.    Piquet Sports             1:29.160  +   0.056  13
 5.  Glock         iSport International      1:29.300  +   0.196  11
 6.  Zuber         Trident Racing            1:29.400  +   0.296  14
 7.  Di Grassi     Durango                   1:29.404  +   0.300  14
 8.  Bruni         Trident Racing            1:29.546  +   0.442  14
 9.  Piccione      DPR Direxiv               1:29.548  +   0.444  10
10.  Pantano       FMS International         1:29.729  +   0.625   9
11.  Ammermueller  Arden International Ltd   1:29.869  +   0.765  11
12.  Monfardini    DAMS                      1:29.890  +   0.786  12
13.  Perera        DAMS                      1:29.903  +   0.799  13
14.  Viso          iSport International      1:29.937  +   0.833  15
15.  Valles        Campos Racing             1:30.351  +   1.247  14
16.  Yoshimoto     BCN Competicion           1:30.484  +   1.380  10
17.  Negrao        Piquet Sports             1:30.526  +   1.422  14
18.  Lopez         Super Nova International  1:31.097  +   1.993  12
19.  Villa         Racing Engineering        1:31.178  +   2.074  14
20.  Conway        DPR Direxiv               1:31.309  +   2.205  12
21.  Hernandez     Durango                   1:31.321  +   2.217  12
22.  Jani          Arden International Ltd   1:31.334  +   2.230  13
23.  Fauzy         Super Nova International  1:31.506  +   2.402   8
24.  Porteiro      Campos Racing             1:31.624  +   2.520  12
25.  Filippi       BCN Competicion           1:31.836  +   2.732   4
26.  Tahinci       FMS International         1:33.834  +   4.730  14