Photo: Paul Davies Photography
British F3 title rivals Matt Rao and Martin Cao took one pole position each in qualifying for the decider at Donington Park.
Rao, who trails his Fortec team-mate Cao by 15 points coming into the weekend, set the fastest time of the session with his last lap to claim pole for the third and final race.
Cao’s final effort was two tenths of a second adrift, leaving him second on the grid for the closer.
Cao’s second best time, however, was two tenths of a second better than Rao’s, meaning he starts the weekend’s first race from the front of the grid.
The Double R duo of Max Marshall and Camren Kaminsky were a factor in the qualifying battle at one point, but finished up third and fourth on the leaderboard, with Marshall nearly 0.9 seconds down and Kaminsky over a second off.
Sole Carlin entrant Peter Li completed the five-car field, 1.7 seconds off the pace. Marshall will begin ahead of Kaminsky and then Li in both main races.
Qualifying results
| Race 1 | ? | Race 3 | ||||||||
| Pos | Driver? | Team | Time? | Gap? | ? | Pos | Driver? | Team | Time? | Gap? |
| 1 | Martin Cao | Fortec Motorsports | 1:24.752 | 1 | Matt Rao | Fortec Motorsports | 1:24.389 | |||
| 2 | Matt Rao | Fortec Motorsports | 1:24.974 | 0.222 | 2 | Martin Cao | Fortec Motorsports | 1:24.593 | 0.204 | |
| 3 | Max Marshall | Double R Racing | 1:25.389 | 0.637 | 3 | Max Marshall | Double R Racing | 1:25.282 | 0.893 | |
| 4 | Camren Kaminsky | Double R Racing | 1:25.583 | 0.831 | 4 | Camren Kaminsky | Double R Racing | 1:25.502 | 1.113 | |
| 5 | Peter Li | Carlin | 1:26.178 | 1.426 | 5 | Peter Li | Carlin | 1:26.099 | 1.710 | |