Marko Asmer has put himself in the perfect position to secure the British F3 International Series title after snaring a double pole at
Croft ahead of the penultimate meeting of the season.
The Hitech man produced a dominant display in qualifying for round 19 to finish the 30-minute session a tenth of a second clear of championship rival Maro Engel. 'Frankie' Cheng bounced back after the disappointments of
Thruxton to secure the National Class pole ahead of title leader Sergio Perez.
The sun made it's first appearance of the day as the 29 British F3 cars began the qualifying session. The early pace was made by Engel, from Sam Bird, Niall Breen and Jonathan Kennard. Asmer soon made his presence felt, briefly holding the top spot before Engel, Breen, Stephen Jelley and Bird all went quicker on their next laps.
With 22 minutes of the session remaining Maro Engel was 0.005secs ahead of Niall Breen and the German came into the pits to save his tyres. However within a couple of minutes he found himself off the top spot as Asmer posted a 1min 13.232secs lap which put him 0.119 seconds in front of his rival. Engel then came back onto the track to take up the challenege.
With 14 minutes remaining the red flags were shown as Sebastian Hohenthal went off on the circuit and his Dallara was judged to be in a dangerous position. The car was quickly moved to a safer location and the session resumed but most of the drivers had already posted their best laps.
One of the exceptions was Greg Mansell who improved over the next three laps to move him up from the low teens to eighth on the grid, just 0.4 behind Asmer. 'Frankie' Cheng posted his best time of the session with just 5 minutes to go to secure his third pole of the year, two places and 0.339 seconds ahead of Sergio Perez. At the end of the session Marko Asmer was quickest, from Engel, Breen, Jelley, Mustonen and Bird, with the top 12 drivers split by just 0.6 seconds.
