Kerr takes Shanghai pole
Robbie Kerr took pole position for Team Great Britain in a thrilling A1GP qualifying session in Shanghai
It was the perfect response to the pressure he had been put under by the team's win with Oliver Jarvis in the previous round in Mexico.
Kerr left it to the last, but delivered the fastest lap of the weekend and became the only man to drop into the 1:34s.
"We'd been building up to it throughout qualifying," said Kerr. "We'd made some changes overnight, but had to back-pedal on them because they didn't work. It was just a case of putting everything together."
It was Team USA's Jonathan Summerton who stole the limelight on his first run.
New Zealand's Jonny Reid had just taken provisional pole from Germany's Nico Hulkenberg, but seconds later Summerton stormed across the line to take the top spot by 0.07 seconds.
Robbie Kerr was the final of the big guns to cross the line, but could only go fourth.
Reid hit back on his second run, setting what at this point was the fastest lap of the weekend to hit the top overall. Summerton's lap was 0.61 seconds down on his first run and it dropped him to third overall behind Hulkenberg. Kerr did enough to remain fourth.
But the British driver found some time on his third lap and looked to have jumped two places up to second as Reid and Hulkenberg both went slower than their first two runs. However, Summerton knocked Kerr back to third with a strong run good that was enough to improve his aggregate time.
So heading into the fourth segment the order was New Zealand, USA, Great Britain and Germany. It would all come down to final runs.
Hulkenberg was the first of the top quartet to go and set his best lap of qualifying. But it would still only leave him fourth once the other three had run.
Next up was Reid who also saved his best until last, and when Summerton failed to improve it looked like the Kiwi had pole position secured.
But Kerr was flying. He crossed the line to set a stunning lap pf 1:34.756 - by far the quickest of the weekend.
Narain Karthikeyan recovered well after screwing up his second to set an aggregated time good enough for fifth, ahead of Switzerland, France and Malaysia.
Pos Driver Team Agg. Time 1. Robbie Kerr Great Britain 3:10.473 2. Jonny Reid New Zealand 3:10.539 + 0.066 3. J.Summerton USA 3:10.800 + 0.327 4. N.Hulkenberg Germany 3:11.053 + 0.580 5. N.Karthikeyan India 3:11.183 + 0.710 6. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland 3:11.301 + 0.828 7. Jean-Karl Vernay France 3:11.525 + 1.052 8. Alex Yoong Malaysia 3:11.548 + 1.075 9. Sean McIntosh Canada 3:11.855 + 1.382 10. Enrico Toccacelo Italy 3:12.023 + 1.550 11. Joao Urbano Portugal 3:12.218 + 1.745 12. A.van der Merwe South Africa 3:12.218 + 1.745 13. Cheng Cong Fu China 3:12.294 + 1.821 14. Ananda Mikola Indonesia 3:12.359 + 1.886 15. R.van der Zande Netherlands 3:12.426 + 1.953 16. Vitor Meira Brazil 3:12.545 + 2.072 17. Sergio Perez Mexico 3:13.621 + 3.148 18. Richard Lyons Ireland 3:13.756 + 3.283 19. Allam Khodair Lebanon 3:13.818 + 3.345 20. Filip Salaquarda Czech Republic 3:14.797 + 4.324 21. Ian Dyk Australia 3:15.341 + 4.868 22. Nur Ali Pakistan 3:18.801 + 8.328
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