In the final segment, Ireland’s Adam Carroll put in a fantastic lap on PowerBoost to keep his place at the top while Great Britain, also on PowerBoost, went second quickest. As the rest of the field recorded their times, Ireland remained on top thanks to beating last year’s best time by half a second. In the final seconds Daniel Morad put in a staggering performance to take third on the grid with a 1:47.645s; the best ever grid position for Lebanon, by some margin.

“It’s nice to bring Lebanon forward seeing how they have struggled in the past,” said Morad, “but it’s just another race and I’m going to try to do the best I can. I know the team is going to do great and we are one of the quickest during the pit stops so I think we can actually move forward from this position. You never know what’s going to happen tomorrow, it could rain, it could be dry, but I’m just really excited to be so high up.”

Sprint pole-sitter Jani will start 16th for the Feature race making for two completely different looking grids for tomorrow’s races. “We had some troubles in Q1 with traffic, but we did a better lap in Q2 which was enough for my sixth pole here so I’m pretty happy about that. Unfortunately, with this new rule allowing PowerBoost on one of the qualifying segments, I used it in Q2 and some used it in Q4. The ones using it in Q4 would be ahead so it was pretty clear that I wouldn’t get pole for that one. It was good for the Sprint race but not as good for the Feature race, I think I’m as far back as I’ve ever been in my A1GP career.”

France’s Duval, also on the front row for the Sprint race and ninth for the Feature said: “It was not so bad, I mean the first qualifying for the Sprint race I did quite a good lap, I just made some mistakes at the end because of the car set up, so we improved a bit and at the end it was quite good. We’re not fast enough without the PowerBoost but we are still ninth for the Feature race so we still have a good chance.”

Commenting on the team’s decision to use PowerBoost for the Sprint race, he continued: “I didn’t want to take it. It was not wrong but just not lucky; I mean 80% of the guys took it for the last segment and 20% for the second one. It was quite a good qualifying, I made a mistake for the Sprint race and actually I think I did a good lap for the Feature race because I did 1m 47.9s without the PowerBoost so I’m quite happy about that.”

Feature race pole-sitter Adam Carroll said: “That was my first pole for the Feature race and I wanted that one badly. It was quite a good lap but obviously there is the PowerBoost and that’s when I chose to use it. It’s going to be hot tomorrow, so we will be even redder and sweatier. There is not much you can do in England to prepare for temperatures like this, not only is it hot but it’s really humid and that what makes it quite difficult.“

Great Britain’s Danny Watts, sixth and second tomorrow, was surprised by his Feature race effort: “I came straight on the radio to the team to say I’m sorry as it didn’t feel like a particularly good lap and I made a couple of mistakes so I was relieved, but I should have driven a lot quicker, because I was too slow for the Sprint race. It’s the big day tomorrow though so that’s where it all matters, and it’s good that we’ve got the pace and we’ll focus on that now.”