Bamber was in the box seat to claim the top spot before Caratti dropped him to second, the 17-year old Kiwi sensation missing out on his first pole by less than one tenth of a second in his first weekend in a F3 car. A bitterly disappointed James Winslow, meanwhile, had to be content with being was the third of the BRM runners, having held top spot for a moment in the second session. Traffic hindered a late run that potentially could have put him on pole.
”I'm pretty angry because I was on a lap my dash showed that was three-tenths quicker than my best, which would've been enough for pole position - but then traffic ruined it,” the Briton rued. “I could've been on pole, but instead I'm third. The slower cars just ruined it.”
Neil McFadyen qualified strongly despite still lacking set-up and development time with his new Piccola Scuderia Dallara F307, scoring sixth and fifth overall to earn a solid return on the team's hard work since the car turned its first laps on Friday.
Mat Sofi scored results the exact mirror of McFadyen, but was pleased to be closer to the pace today following issues throughout practice yesterday.
”We had a sticking throttle that, when I took my foot off, would stop at 50 per cent throttle, which was costing us time,” he said, ”We didn't quite get the results we wanted today but, given the problems yesterday, we're happy to be near the front. The team is doing a great job and we're pretty close to the front so I think we can challenge.”
In the Opes Prime National Class, Australian F3's two Chrises - Reindler and Gilmour - shared pole honours, although Reindler may count himself lucky because, although he took class pole for the first race, he crashed soon afterwards, causing drama in his pits to get the TanderSport Dallara F304 Opel Spiess ready for the second session.
![Chris Reindler - Tandersport [pic credit: Klynsmith/Race Torque]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/405190.jpg)
