Carroll claims sprint race pole
Adam Carroll boosted Ireland's chances of winning the A1GP title this weekend by taking pole position for Sunday's sprint race at Brands Hatch
The former GP2 race winner put in a spectacular lap in the second segment of qualifying, as he topped the timesheet despite not using his power boost.
Salvador Duran put Mexico on the front row thanks to using his boost, which put him ahead of free practice pace setter Jeroen Bleekemolen for the Netherlands who, like Carroll, opted to save his one lap of boost for feature race qualifying.
Several more cars behind Bleekemolen also used their power boost, and Team USA rookie JR Hildebrand led the chasing pack as he gave the Andretti-Green-run squad its best qualifying result of the season with fourth place.
Portugal made the top five as it bids to snatch the title away from leaders Switzerland and Ireland, while Earl Bamber took sixth for New Zealand.
Behind India in seventh, Neel Jani's tough weekend continued and he could only manage eighth place without the benefit of power boost. One of the stars of the session will line up behind the defending champion, as Indonesia used its power boost to take ninth place with Satrio Hermanto.
Hermanto may have been slightly responsible for so many teams choosing to use their power boost for the sprint race sessions, as he went out early and initially put his car on the front row of the grid.
Team Great Britain's fortunes seemed set to change after Q1 when Dan Clarke put the home team third. However, he was the only driver not to improve in Q2, which dropped him down to 13th place.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Adam Carroll Ireland 1m11.615s 2. Salvador Duran Mexico 1m11.653s +0.038 3. Jeroen Bleekemolen Netherlands 1m11.992s +0.377 4. JR Hildebrand USA 1m11.994s +0.379 5. Fiipe Albuquerque Portugal 1m12.040s +0.425 6. Earl Bamber New Zealand 1m12.108s +0.493 7. Narain Karthikeyan India 1m12.109s +0.494 8. Neel Jani Switzerland 1m12.212s +0.597 9. Satrio Hermanto Indonesia 1m12.658s +1.043 10. John Martin Australia 1m12.745s +1.130 11. Daniel Morad Lebanon 1m12.889s +1.274 12. Nicolas Prost France 1m13.011s +1.396 13. Dan Clarke Great Britain 1m13.019s +1.404 14. Clivio Piccione Monaco 1m13.260s +1.645 15. Michael Ammermuller Germany 1m13.329s +1.714 16. Vitantonio Liuzzi Italy 1m13.549s +1.934 17. Felipe Guimaraes Brazil 1m13.584s +1.969 18. Aaron Lim Malaysia 1m13.686s +2.071 19. Alan van der Merwe South Africa 1m13.854s +2.239 20. Franky Cheng China 1m13.861s +2.246
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