TEAM NEWS: Hitech Racing's Pietro Fantin produced an impressive display in his first Cooper Tires British F3 International Series qualifying session to set the fifth quickest time at Rockingham and lead the way for the Buckingham-based team.

The teenage Brazilian, who will race in the Invitational Class this weekend, is set to contest three race meetings this year in preparation for an assault on the championship in 2011 but was quick from the outset as he secured a place on the third row of the grid for race three on Sunday afternoon.

The only slight disappointment for the 18-year-old was that his second quickest time - which decides his starting position for race one later today - was only eleventh fastest.

"I expected to challenge for a place in the top ten, so to be fifth quickest in qualifying and the fastest of the Hitech drivers is brilliant," he said. "The team worked well and the car was good - it's just a shame that I wasn't able to go as quickly on my second quickest lap. Since I started testing the car I have focused hard on trying to improve I am happy to have made a good start to my first race weekend."

Fellow Brazilian Gabriel Dias was looking to continue the form that saw him take victory during the last British F3 event at Hockenheim in late May, but the former National Class driver could only post the eighth quickest time. His second fastest time was good enough for seventh on the grid for race one.

"That wasn't what we were expecting and the team deserves better," he reflected. "I didn't manage to put a good lap together and like a number of drivers, I suffered with traffic during the session. We are working to improve the car and we are still in a position on the grid where we can score some good points."

MSA Team UK driver Will Buller, in his home race, qualified eleventh quickest for the final race of the weekend with his second quickest time good enough for ninth on the grid for race one.

"That was a tough qualifying session," he said. "I'm not quite sure what went wrong but there are a few little things that we didn't nail and we have to work to solve those things for the races. The grid is so close that it only takes something small to drop you down the order but we'll just focus on having a good race this afternoon and making up places to fight towards the top five."

Although disappointed to see his two regular drivers qualify lower than expected, team boss Ryan Sharp was left delighted by the performance of his rookie but remains confident that all three drivers can impress when racing gets underway.

"That was an unbelievable performance from Pietro," he said. "He has come over here after two years in karting and has been involved in testing programme ahead of next season, so to go fifth quickest in his first qualifying session is very impressive. He has improved a lot since he first drove the car and to be honest, I've never seen a driver improve so quickly.