Oliver Jarvis defied suggestions that the 54th Macau Grand Prix may be something of a Marko Asmer benefit by beating the Estonian to pole position in the second and final qualifying session around the notorious street circuit.
The session, in which the vast majority of the drivers improved their earlier lap times from the previous day, was a typical Macau affair, with no less than three red flag interruptions and numerous yellow flags that prevented anyone from getting into a rhythm, but Jarvis - who has campaigned in the All-Japan F3 series this year - came through to deprive Asmer of the pole had had claimed overnight.
The Briton - who moved in the opposite direction to his rival during the winter, although Asmer started the season doing both the British and Japanese championships - vaulted from eleventh on the provisional grid to snatch pole by 0.192secs after getting his best lap just right.
With only three drivers failing to improve on their Thursday times, Asmer showed his prowess by holding on to second spot as the top ten shuffled behind him. The Estonian found 1.3secs in the leading Hitech entry and, while not being able to do anything about Jarvis' 2min 11.696secs effort, did enough to keep Kodai Tsukakoshi at bay.
The Japanese driver gained a handful of places to claim the inside of row two, and could be the dark horse when racing gets underway on the weekend, having shown glimpses of his pace and promise in 2006.
Sébastien Buemi held on to fourth spot despite the shuffling, posting Räikkönen-Robertson Racing's best grid position to claim top spot among the F3 Euroseries regulars.
“The result is okay, but it was difficult to find the right rhythm with all these interruptions," the Swiss ace - who out-gunned Euroseries title rival Romain Grosjean by a couple of spots - admitted, "For tomorrow, I have to find the right compromise between charging to make up some places and playing it safe to make it to the finish.”
