Championship contender Renger van de🗹r Zande stole a march on his rivals today in qualifying for round 17 of the 2009 Cooper Tires British Formula 3 International Series at the Algarve circ🐽uit in Portugal, the Dutch driver bagging pole position by a margin of more than a tenth.

"That was my best-ever qualifying lap, I think," said the Mercedes-powered Hitech✃ Racing pilot. "Max Chilton was quick early on in the session and I did not thinꦺk I could get close to his time - maybe the track was quicker earlier.

"But then I got a fantastic tow from [AR𝓡T's] Roberto Mehri around theཧ whole lap and got the pole."

Ch𝕴ilton will start second, with F3 Euro Series points' leader Jules Bianchi third and quickest of the seven invitational🌺 class drivers.

Daniel Ricciardo meanwhile posted fourth-best time in his Carlin Motorsport Dallara-Volkswagen, with the other m꧟an i𓃲n the championship title hunt, Austrian Walter Grubmuller, only 13th fastest for Hitech Racing.

The leading National Class🐎 runner was T-Sport's Gabriel Dias, the Brazilian two-tenths ahead of his British rival for the class crown, Daniel McKenzie.

The Litespeed team struck trouble: Victor Correa was unable to take part due to a shortage of driveshafts for his SLC R1, while his team-mate Adil Hermanto suffered a suspected gearbox failure. The team hopes that both cars will be ꦡrepaired in time for tomorrow♛'s races.