Chilton claims pole for race two

The Carlin driver once again took to the track earlier than many of his realistic pole position rivals and immediately lapped below 1m38s with a 1m37.901s time on his first flying lap.

The category veteran then set three consecutive further laps below 1m38s, his best a blistering 1m37.538s, to take the pole by 0.181s from his championship leading team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

After a stupendous performance, Chilton promptly retired to the pits to watch his rivals try in vain to topple him. Early session pacesetter ART, which had all four drivers sitting in the top four at one stage, sent its drivers back out for another crack at the top spot, but none could loosen Chilton's grip on pole.

Reigning F3 Masters winner Valterri Bottas lapped faster than he had so far this weekend, but had to be content with third, while his F3 Euro Series points leading team-mate Jules Bianchi went fifth quickest after finding only a few hundredths of a second compared with this morning.

This pair sandwiched impressive series returnee Sam Bird (Fortec), who dug deep and became the last of only four drivers to lap below 1m38s in this session. He will thus line up fourth for tomorrow's second race.

Team-mate Riki Christodoulou underlined Fortec's remarkable improvement in session two by setting the seventh fastest time, just 0.013s behind Manor Motorsport's Roberto Merhi (again sixth) and 0.008s clear of race one poleman Renger van der Zande (Hitech).

The Dutchman delivered what he described as a "perfect qualifying" to net pole in this morning's session. But without the help of a tow from one of his rivals he could not deliver the same pace this afternoon, and only a last gasp improvement vaulted him up to eighth - still nearly four tenths shy of his earlier best.

Double R team-mates Carlos Huertas and Dasiuke Nakajima continued the squad's solid showing in Portugal by rounding out the top 10, in a session that was much closer and faster than this morning's.

Title contender Walter Grubmuller (Hitech) struggled and once again found himself mired down on row seven, behind ART's Esteban Gutierrez and T-Sport team-mates Wayne Boyd and Adriano Buzaid.

Pos  Driver                Team            Car  Time       Gap
 1.  Max Chilton           Carlin          D/V  1m37.538s
 2.  Daniel Ricciardo      Carlin          D/V  1m37.719s  + 0.181s
 3.  Valtteri Bottas       ART             D/M  1m37.914s  + 0.376s
 4.  Sam Bird              Fortec          D/M  1m37.916s  + 0.378s
 5.  Jules Bianchi         ART             D/M  1m38.049s  + 0.511s
 6.  Roberto Merhi         Manor           D/M  1m38.090s  + 0.552s
 7.  Riki Christodoulou    Fortec          D/M  1m38.103s  + 0.565s
 8.  Renger van der Zande  Hitech          D/M  1m38.114s  + 0.576s
 9.  Carlos Huertas        Double R        D/M  1m38.178s  + 0.640s
10.  Daisuke Nakajima      Double R        D/M  1m38.263s  + 0.725s
11.  Esteban Gutierrez     ART             D/M  1m38.304s  + 0.766s
12.  Wayne Boyd            T-Sport         D/V  1m38.491s  + 0.953s
13.  Adriano Buzaid        T-Sport         D/V  1m38.546s  + 1.008s
14.  Walter Grubmuller     Hitech          D/M  1m38.556s  + 1.018s
15.  Philip Major          Carlin          D/V  1m38.701s  + 1.163s
16.  Henry Arundel         Carlin          D/V  1m38.760s  + 1.222s
17.  Adrien Tambay         ART             D/M  1m38.788s  + 1.250s
18.  Hywel Lloyd           CF              D/H  1m38.915s  + 1.377s
19.  Victor Garcia         Fortec          D/M  1m38.942s  + 1.404s
20.  Pedro Enrique         Manor           D/M  1m39.039s  + 1.501s
21.  Jay Bridger           Litespeed       M/H  1m39.091s  + 1.553s
22.  Gabriel Dias          T-Sport         D/H  1m39.225s  + 1.687s
23.  Stephane Richelmi     Barazi-Epsilon  D/M  1m39.484s  + 1.946s
24.  Daniel McKenzie       Fortec          D/H  1m39.725s  + 2.187s
25.  Kevin Chen            Double R        D/M  1m40.100s  + 2.562s
26.  Joe Ghanem            Carlin          D/H  1m40.509s  + 2.971s
27.  Mathieu Maurage       West-Tec        D/H  1m40.987s  + 3.449s
28.  Max Snegirev          West-Tec        D/H  1m41.425s  + 3.887s
29.  Victor Correa         Litespeed       S/H  1m42.198s  + 4.660s