Jamie Caroline took his first British F3 pole position in a qualifying session that ebbed and flowed at Brands Hatch.
On the longer GP circuit, Caroline was one of the earlier pacesetters, swapping pole with Carlin teammate Billy Monger.
Once he usurped Monger towards the end of the session, Caroline gradually bettered his time from a 1:21.7s to the 1:21.596s that he eventually ended the session on.
Caroline was just 0.062s clear of Nicolai Kjaergaard’s late surge. The Dane had been towards the end of the top six before a last-gasp 1:21.658 put him second on the grid.
That knocked teammate Monger down to third to complete the Carlin 1-2-3, although man from Reigate was just 0.011 seconds further back after earlier being the man to beat at his home circuit.
Championship leader Linus Lundqvist was fourth, only a tenth away from Caroline. The Swede has a comfortable 120-point lead over Kjaergaard in the standings, and can afford to start from fourth on the grid.
The other two drivers with faint Championship hopes start sixth and eighth respectively.
Kush Maini lines up on the third row of the grid after being pipped to sixth by Sun Yue Yang, while Gamble was surprisingly off the pace after a stellar weekend at Spa-Francorchamps last time out.
The session was brought to an end early by a red flag with just over a minute to go, as Caroline completed his all action session by spinning into the pit wall before recovering back to the pits.
Race One of three this weekend gets underway at 5:35pm on Saturday.
Image credit: Jakob Ebrey via www.BritishF3.com