Carlin on Top as Engel Claims Debut Pole

Maro Engel took his first ever pole position in the Lloyds TSB Insurance British F3 International Series for Carlin Motorsport, just one hundredth of a second ahead of Hitech Racings James Walker.  Mike Conway headed up an all Raikkonen Robertson Racing second row just ahead of Stephen Jelley.  Conway had only completed one flying lap, posting the provisional pole position time, before losing the rear end of the car and clouting the barriers just after Rivage.  

The accident brought out the red flags while Conway’s broken Dallara was recovered.  On the restart of the session Conway held the top spot for over half the session before James Walker pushed hard as he got a clear track, setting the fastest sector times of the day in sector 1 and sector before going 0.4 seconds faster than Conway.  However the Hitech Racing teams joy was shot lived as 30 seconds later Maro Engel went 0.01 seconds faster than their driver.

The qualifying session then settled down with many drivers retiring to the pits.  As the chequered flag was shown it was Engel from Walker and Conway, with Jelley, Senna and Jarvis rounding out the top six.

 In the National Class Rodolfo Gonzalez claimed another class pole with the Venzuelan posting a time of just 0.2 seconds ahead of Cristiano Morgado.

 Maro Engel (#12 Carlin Motorsport Dallara F306 Mugen Honda) - Pole Position: "Awesome, awesome feeling! Just really pleased for the team, they had a really hard time this morning so all credit to them.  They had to change some things after we had a bit of a fire, so they had a big job to get the car out for the second practice session.  They gave me a fantastic car that was just good enough for pole.  When Mike (Conway) went off I was on a lap that was three tenths up on my previous lap.  Once he was out I sort of knew that if I could my lap together it would be good enough for pole, it wasn’t easy with the traffic but once I got clear I managed to one in.  To have it by a hundredth is ever so small but it is good enough.  For the race it is going to be down to staying in the lead until the corner at the top of the main straight. If I can stay in the lead until there I think we can have a good race and really look for that win.  I'm very confident we've got the pace so I'll be looking for a race win."

James Walker (#15 Hitech Racing Dallara F306 Mercedes HWA) - 2nd in qualifying:  "That was, if I'm allowed to talk about myself this way, a very, very good lap.  I couldn’t have been on the limit anywhere else.  I worked the traffic perfectly and pushed for 100% of the lap.  I was careful not to make a mistake at The Bus Stop and La Source but very happy.  In first practice we were quickest and I felt very good.  We didn't get the best out of the tyres in the second session and P4 wasn’t a good representation.  Disappointed because the team deserve a pole position and we have had a lot of bad luck and a pole would have been a good reward.  However it could have been a lot worse, starting from second you can overtake, get a good start, which I did at Snetterton in both races. If I can get one of them, just get a clean first lap and the rest will take care of itself. Today has got to be the start of our crawl back up the championship table and if we can get two podiums, depending on how second qualifying goes, is exactly what we need, we just need to be consistent from now until the end of the year.  I set a fast time on the simulator on the Lloyds TSB Insurance stand at the British Motor Show and I think it did help.  Any seat time is an advantage and it shows how realistic those games are.  I was fastest on the Thursday at the show and Engel turned up on Saturday and beat my time by a thousandth which is exactly what happened today.  But I'm going for the win tomorrow! "

Mike Conway (#26 Raikkonen Robertson Racing Dallara F306 Mercedes HWA) - 3rd in qualifying: "The first lap we did we knew that you get two laps around here and that is it.  The first lap was OK, a 16-2 I think, and then after that it was really good.  The hairpin was fast, through the right-left at the top of the hill, through the right and then down through the hairpin, it was up on my previous time and then coming through the left I tried to take a bit more speed in and just got a big oversteer.  It was like a long correction and by the time I corrected it was too late and too close to the barrier and it went straight in.  To be honest I thought I was going to be down in P10 or lower behind the people who are behind me in the championship.  To finish 3rd, I'm fairly happy although I am really annoyed because I went off and we should have had pole."

Lloyds TSB Insurance British F3 International Series – Round 11 Qualifying

1 12 C Maro ENGEL Dallara F306 Mugen-Honda 02:15.777 8 184.962 15 C James WALKER Dallara F306 Mercedes HWA 02:15.787 8 0.01 184.943 26 C Mike CONWAY Dallara F306 Mercedes HWA 02:16.214 2 0.437 184.364 22 C Stephen JELLEY Dallara F306 Mercedes HWA 02:16.522 8 0.745 183.955 21 C Bruno SENNA Dallara F306 Mercedes HWA 02:16.640 5 0.863 183.796 2 C Oliver JARVIS Dallara F306 Mugen-Honda 02:16.822 11 1.045 183.547 5 C Salvador DURAN Dallara F306 Mercedes HWA 02:16.949 9 1.172 183.378 1 C Christian BAKKERUD Dallara F306 Mugen-Honda 02:17.023 11 1.246 183.289 6 C James JAKES Dallara F306 Mercedes HWA 02:17.088 8 1.311 183.1910 3 C Yelmer BUURMAN Dallara F306 Mercedes HWA 02:17.102 12 1.325 183.1711 9 C Jonathan KENNARD Dallara F306 Mugen-Honda 02:17.102 7 1.325 183.1712 10 C Karl REINDLER Dallara F306 Mugen-Honda 02:17.329 13 1.552 182.8713 65 I Michael HERCK Dallara F306 Mercedes HWA 02:17.429 11 1.652 182.7314 16 C Alberto VALERIO Dallara F306 Mugen-Honda 02:17.721 11 1.944 182.3515 32 N Rodolfo GONZALEZ Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 02:18.633 11 2.856 181.1516 37 N Cristiano MORGADO Lola-Dome F106/4 Mugen-Honda 02:18.882 13 3.105 180.8217 66 I Mario MORAES Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 02:18.949 9 3.172 180.7418 39 N Juho ANNALA Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 02:19.592 11 3.815 179.919 11 C Keiko IHARA Dallara F306 Mugen-Honda 02:19.983 12 4.206 179.420 77 I Basil SHAABAN Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 02:20.587 9 4.81 178.6321 35 N Martin KUDZAK Lola-Dome F106/4 Mugen-Honda 02:21.413 13 5.636 177.5922 38 N Rodolfo AVILA Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 02:21.823 13 6.046 177.0723 40 N Ricardo TEIXEIRA Dallara F304 Mugen-Honda 02:22.701 13 6.924 175.9824 8 C Alexander KHATEEB Lola B05-30 Mugen-Honda 02:22.945 4 7.168 175.68