Castle Combe: Round 11 qualifying summary

Watts takes first pole position for Lola-Dome

Danny Watts put the Promatecme F3 Lola-Dome onto pole position for round 11 of the Avon Tyres British Formula Three Championship at Castle Combe this afternoon, finally ending the domination of the series by the Dallara chassis.

Watts powered to the top spot with a lap-time of 59.271s, just ahead of Venezuelan Ernesto Viso and Clivio Piccione, making it the first on-Dallara pole position in the British Championship since Spa in 2000. Meanwhile, the series front-runners, Nelson Piquet Jr and Briton James Rossiter suffered a nightmare opening session.

"All the credit has to go to Lola and the Promatecme team," said Watts. "They have been working so hard on making the car faster from just before the first race of the season. I've just been driving it as hard as I can and giving as much feedback as possible and we've finally got there," he added.

"The car was really good and it felt like that right from the start of the session. I had no time coming up on my dash and I didn't want to speak to the guys over the radio, so I just kept my head down and kept putting the laps in. I'm so pleased for the team," he added.

Series leader Piquet will start the first of tomorrow's two races from tenth on the grid after spinning late in the session while going for a quick time. Fortec Motorsport driver Rossiter could only manage 13th best time, suffering from a lack of circuit knowledge and set-up time. Lucas Di Grassi set the early pace but was unable to hold onto a front row position.

Adam Carroll put in some spectacular laps towards the end of the session, but had to settle for fifth place. Alvaro Parente overcame early session problems, which left his car being worked on in the team awning, to snatch sixth place.

In the Scholarship Class it was once again Ryan Lewis who took pole position. Stephen Jelley pushed him hard to line-up second with Vasilije Calasan third.

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