Leanne Tander scored the first point of the 2008 Kumho Tyres Australian F3 Championship by taking pole position for race one at Eastern Creek, while rookie Nathan Caratti scored his first career F3 pole thanks to a stunning effort in qualifying for race two.
Tander was able to bank her best lap a 1min 24.0969secs effort early in the first session but then had to wait as her nearest rivals whittled down their laps to get close to her time. Kiwi Earl Bamber and Caratti came close both were less than two-tenths from pole at the end of the 20 minutes but Tander was left with enough space to claim the first championship point of the 2008 season.
I'm really happy, we made a lot of changes to the car overnight and it worked, she enthused, The track changed a lot overnight so we had to work out changes to the car to suit how we thought it would be, and it paid off. We're really happy to come out of the box and put it on pole, it's an ideal start to the year.
Tander went on to qualify fourth for the second race to cap off a solid day for the TanderSport team, but the afternoon session saw times dramatically slower than the first thanks to the amount of A1GP rubber laid down. The session, however, was even more competitive.
After 20 minutes of fluctuating results and tumbling times, Caratti snatched pole position in his Opes Prime Team BRM Dallara after the chequered flag had flown in a dramatic end to the session, bumping team-mate Earl Bamber back to second and taking the top spot by a meagre 0.075secs. The stunning result gave Opes Prime Team BRM their first ever 1-2-3 in qualifying, locking out almost all of the front two rows of the grid.
It was a great session and I was just able to get the lap in the end, Caratti said, I'm very pleased. We need to do the job tomorrow in the race, but it's been a good day to get a pole and a second.
![Chris Reindler - Tandersport [pic credit: Klynsmith/Race Torque]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/405190.jpg)
