Renger van der Zande completed a clean sweep of pole positions for round five of the British Formula 3 Championship by setting the fastest time in second qualifying at Snetterton this afternoon.

The Dutchman's 1m02.098s best lap edged out teammate Walter Grubmuller by 0.068sec and sealed a Hitech lock-up of the front row for tomorrow's second race.

Van der Zande dominated this session, which was cooler and cloudier than first qualifying. He leapt to the top of the times with his first flying lap, a 1m02.522s, and continued to go quicker on consecutive tours before nailing the fastest time on his fourth effort.

That impressive performance came within the first 10 minutes of the session and although van der Zande failed to improve again, he rubbed his rivals' noses in the metaphorical dust by setting several other laps faster than anyone else could manage.

"Seven hundredths is a huge margin for Snetterton!" quipped the pole man. "I still haven't come off the first position all weekend, so hopefully we can keep it that way in the races. The team is doing really good at the moment, I'm very pleased."

Fortec's Riki Christodoulou will start directly behind the Hitech duo after setting the third fastest time, less than two hundredths adrift of Grubmuller, but 0.126s clear of Carlin's Max Chilton, who completed row two.

Chilton's Australian teammate Daniel Ricciardo joined the action later than most and could only manage fifth, 0.233sec off the pace.

Brazilian Adriano Buzaid will join the championship leader on row three after setting the sixth fastest time, just two hundredths of second clear of teammate Wayne Boyd. This was by far the T-Sport squad's strongest collective qualifying showing of the season so far.

Victor Garcia (Fortec) showed marked improvement compared with this morning's session to take eighth, just 0.007sec clear of the puncture-affected Daisuke Nakajima (Double R) and 0.075sec ahead of Jay Bridger (Litespeed), whose Mygale again made it into the top 10.

After setting a tow-assisted second fastest time this morning, Henry Arundel (Carlin) could only manage 11th this time, while persistence paid off for Daniel McKenzie (Fortec), who pounded around relentlessly trying to beat Gabriel Dias (T-Sport) to the National Class pole and finally did so on his 18th lap with five minutes remaining.

TIMES:
Pos  Driver                Team            Car  Time       Gap

1. Renger van der Zande Hitech D/M 1m02.098s

2. Walter Grubmuller Hitech D/M 1m02.166s + 0.068s

3. Riki Christodoulou Fortec D/M 1m02.184s + 0.086s

4. Max Chilton Carlin D/V 1m02.310s + 0.212s

5. Daniel Ricciardo Carlin D/V 1m02.331s + 0.233s

6. Adriano Buzaid T-Sport D/V 1m02.437s + 0.339s

7. Wayne Boyd T-Sport D/V 1m02.457s + 0.359s

8. Victor Garcia Fortec D/M 1m02.536s + 0.438s

9. Daisuke Nakajima Double R D/M 1m02.543s + 0.445s

10. Jay Bridger Litespeed M/M 1m02.611s + 0.513s

11. Henry Arundel Carlin D/V 1m02.704s + 0.606s

12. Carlos Huertas Double R D/M 1m02.716s + 0.618s

13. Daniel McKenzie Fortec D/H 1m02.736s + 0.638s

14. Gabriel Dias T-Sport D/H 1m02.779s + 0.681s

15. Hywel Lloyd CF D/H 1m03.184s + 1.086s

16. Philip Major Carlin D/V 1m03.234s + 1.136s

17. Stephane Richelmi Barazi Epsilon D/M 1m03.466s + 1.368s

18. Victor Correa Litespeed S/H 1m03.563s + 1.465s

19. Aaron Steele Litespeed S/H 1m04.343s + 2.245s

20. Maxim Snegirev West-Tec D/H 1m04.681s + 2.583s