Karthikeyan leads Carlin qualifying 1-2.

Britain's Carlin Motorsport ruled the roost at the end of qualifying for this weekend's Macau F3 Grand Prix, as improvements from both Narain Karthikeyan and Takuma Sato locked out the front row.

The Asian pair had occupied second and fourth places overnight, but Sato repeated his Thursday free practice form early on Friday, and then vaulted up behind his team-mate, who had had to fight with another Japanese, Ryo Fukuda, to seal the pole. The Indian's fastest lap proved to be a new record around the enclave street circuit, as times in general tumbled.

As he had on the opening day of practice, Sato thought he could have gone faster but, with his new partner thinking the same, it was unlikely that the dominant force in Britain's domestic series would have succeeded in snatching top spot.

Fukuda held on to take third spot, ahead of Germany's Pierre Kaffer, who gained four places from his overnight eighth to cement a place on row two. Mathieu Zangarelli climbed seven places to fifth, edging out local hero Andre Couto by a few tenths. Other big gainers included F3000 hopeful Patrick Freisacher (22nd to seventh), Tiago Monteiro (30th to twelfth) and Macau rookie Andy Priaulx, who climbed from 21st overnight to briefly occupy pole, before then dropping back to 13th.

Biggest loser between sessions was provisional pole sitter Paolo Montin, who will start only ninth, while Gianmaria Bruni dropped to tenth and Jonathan Cochet to eleventh. Robert Lechner plummeted from fifth to 24th after problems in the second session.

British series runner-up Tomas Scheckter starts 14th, with Ben Collins 16th, Alex Yoong 17th and Milos Pavlovic 25th. The final three, local, cars on the grid trailed the rest of the field by some five seconds and, whilst making the cut-off time, will surely prove to be no more than mobile chicanes come the two races tomorrow.

Final qualifying times - Macau F3GP.

1 Narain Karthikeyan Carlin Dallara-Mugen 2mins 12.887secs
2 Takuma Sato Carlin Dallara-Mugen 2mins 13.146secs
3 Ryo Fukuda Promatecme Dallara-Renault 2mins 13.262secs
4 Pierre Kaffer HMS Dallara-Opel 2mins 13.428secs
5 Mathieu Zangarelli Equipe de France Dallara-Renault 2mins 13.655secs
6 Andre Couto BSR Dallara-Opel 2mins 13.914secs
7 Patrick Friesacher BSR Dallara-Opel 2mins 14.024secs
8 Enrico Toccacelo Prema Dallara-Opel 2mins 14.056secs
9 Paulo Montin Target Dallara-Opel 2mins 14.057secs
10 Gianmaria Bruni Fortec Dallara-Mugen 2mins 14.276secs
11 Jonathan Cochet Equipe de France Dallara-Renault 2mins 14.379secs
12 Tiago Monteiro ASM-Elf Dallara-Renault 2mins 14.475secs
13 Andy Priaulx Manor Dallara-Mugen 2mins 14.487secs
14 Tomas Scheckter Swiss Racing Dallara-Opel 2mins 14.505secs
15 Peter Sundberg Prema Dallara-Opel 2mins 14.566secs
16 Ben Collins RC Benetton Dallara-Opel 2mins 14.731secs
17 Alex Yoong Swiss Racing Dallara-Opel 2mins 14.816secs
18 Seiji Ara Toda Dallara-Mugen 2mins 14.839secs
19 Haruki Kurosawa TOMS Dallara-Toyota 2mins 14.846secs
20 Sebastien Phillipe Equipe de France Dallara-Renault 2mins 15.172secs
21 Shinichi Takagi Inging Dallara-Toyota 2mins 15.212secs
22 Toshihiro Kaneishi GM Dallara-Opel 2mins 15.668secs
23 Lee Ying Kin Fortec Dallara-Mugen 2mins 15.787secs
14 Robert Lechner TOMS Dallara-Toyota 2mins 15.982secs
25 Milos Pavlovic RC Benetton Dallara-Opel 2mins 16.041secs
26 Yuji Ide Skill Dallara-Mugen 2mins 16.098secs
27 Zsolt Baumgartner GM Dallara-Opel 2mins 16.688secs
28 Michael Ho GM Dallara-Opel 2mins 21.852secs
29 Lei Kit Meng Manor Dallara-Mugen 2mins 22.318secs
30 Joe Merszei HMS Dallara-Opel 2mins 23.836secs