Daniel Ricciardo has secured his first pole position in the Cooper Tires British F3 International Series after the points leader led the way in qualifying for race one at Rockingham.

The Carlin driver posted a quickest time of 1min 12.334secs at the wheel of his Dallara-Volkswagen, which allowed the Australian to edge out Hitech's Renger van der Zande to take his place at the head of the field.

"It's great to get my first pole," the 19-year-old said. "It's a good start to the weekend for me and hopefully I can convert it into another win. Carlin have given me a superb car once again.”

Having set the pace during Friday testing, Nick Tandy was third quickest for JTR for the first race weekend following the death of team boss Joe Tandy and his fiancee's brother Luke Temple in a road traffic accident, giving the Mygale squad welcome encouragement after the difficult times endured in recent weeks. Tandy will be joined on row two by the returning Marcus Ericsson, who will compete this weekend and also at Hockenheim for the Double R outfit.

Max Chilton and Carlos Huertas share row three, with the top eight completed by Daisuke Nakajima and Riki Christodoulou.

Gabriel Dias secured the National Class pole for T-Sport and was an impressive ninth overall, well ahead of his nearest challenger Daniel McKenzie and also ahead of T-Sport's Championship class runners Adriano Buzaid and Wayne Boyd.

"The team have done a great job for me," the Brazilian said. "At every new circuit we visit my car goes better. It's great to be on the class pole again."