Frustrating day for Ultimate.

Ultimate Motorsport was left frustrated by another qualifying day where its British Formula 3 runners proved unable to match the expected pace at Silverstone.

A string of problems ruined lead driver Michael Devaney's qualifying, leaving him well out of reach of the frontrunners, while Alastair Jackson had a mixed day, and Ricardo Teixeira continued his progress up the grid.

Devaney didn't have an ideal set-up on his car in practice and his day only got worse as there was a problem with the battery during first qualifying and he had to pit to have it attended to. By the time he returned to the circuit it was too late to get in any significant running and he could only clock the 20th quickest time. Things improved only slightly in the second session when a bent wishbone on the Mygale further hindered his pace and left the Irish racer in 14th.

"We had so many problems I don't know where to start," he said. "The set-up was all wrong for practice, there was a mistake with the installation of the battery in first qualifying and I only got a couple of laps in at the end. By then it was too late to do anything. To cap it all we then found a broken wishbone in the final session.

"We've lost so much time now that we really don't know where we are going into the race, so it's going to be really tough. I think our only chance of a good result is if it rains."

Jackson and Teixeira were relatively pleased with first qualifying, where they were within a second of the top six and separated by just three hundredths of a second in 15th and 16th. Teixeira repeated that performance in the afternoon in 16th, but Jackson slipped back a couple of places in the incredibly tight midfield to qualify 18th..

"It was a positive day for Ricardo at least: his consistency and improvement continues, which is encouraging," team manager Andy Richardson said. "Alastair didn't get what he wanted out of the car, but in a way it's good because it shows that he should be targeting the top ten when things go well.

"Michael had another unfortunate day: he was let down by the team once and by Mygale once, so we haven't seen the true pace of the car. But he'll keep plugging away and keep his fingers crossed for a wet race."