British F3 news

Chilton and Van der Zande share front row

Max Chilton will start Sunday's first race from pole position. The Briton will be joined by rookie driver Renger van der Zande in his first weekend in British F3 and first outing at Silverstone. Championship leader Daniel Ricciardo made a dramatic early exit from today's qualifying session, the Australian sliding off the track and into a gravel trap to dent his hopes of a position at the sharp end of the grid for Silverstone's third round of the championship.

Ricciardo's Carlin Motorsport team-mate Max Chilton made the most of Dan's absence from the track in the closing stages of the session to bag pole position - his second of the season - with what he described as a 'near perfect' lap in his AON-backed Dallara-Volkswagen. "It was very nearly perfect," said Chilton. "I made perhaps a couple of very small errors but I got a couple of good tows, which helped. Now I have to concentrate on making a perfect start to the race..."

Speaking about his incident Ricciardo said: "I'm still not quite sure what happened. It might have been my error or maybe something broke. I went on the grass and that was that. Luckily I didn't hit anything solid.` Ricciardo, the victor of rounds one and two, will start round three from 11th on the grid, well behind all three of his team-mates.

The sensation of qualifying was flying Dutchman Renger van der Zande, a last-minute addition to the Hitech Racing team alongside regular driver Walter Grubmüller, who posted second-best time in his Mercedes-powered Dallara, just two-hundredths adrift of Chilton. "I am very pleased because it is my first time on this circuit, my first time with Hitech and my first time on Cooper tyres," said Renger. What experience van der Zande lacks in British F3 is more than made for by his race-winning exploits over two seasons in the F3 Euroseries.

Young Brazilian Adriano Buzaid scored his best qualifying result of the season with third for the T-Sport team. Daisuke Nakajima and Riki Christodoulou will line up behind him; the top five all broke the 1m 40s barrier to lop more than 3.5 seconds from the Grand Prix circuit's three-year-old lap record.

In the National Class, Brazilian Gabriel Dias (T-Sport) beat class points leader Daniel McKenzie to the class pole by a tenth of a second.

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• 09 Nov.
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• 02 Nov.
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• 26 Oct.
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• 14 Oct.
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• 25 Sep.
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• 20 Sep.
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  • Photos: Sunday at Brands Hatch
  • Ricciardo takes dominant win at Brands Hatch
• 19 Sep.
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  • Ricciardo on pole-position at Brands Hatch
• 15 Sep.
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• 13 Sep.
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  • Photos: Sunday at Portimao
  • Bianchi winst race 1, Ricciardo takes class win
• 12 Sep.
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  • Van der Zande takes Race 1 pole
• 11 Sep.
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• 31 Aug.
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• 28 Aug.
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  • Van der Zande wins at Silverstone
  • Ricciardo wins Silverstone Race 1
• 15 Aug.
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  • Nakajima on Race 2 pole by a thousandth
  • Ricciardo takes Silverstone pole position
• 14 Aug.
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