Hillspeed's Dan Guinchard claimed a double pole in qualifying at Oulton Park after a tight battle with Elite Motorsport's Alex Kattoulas.
Having topped four out of five pre-event test sessions on Thursday and Friday, Guinchard translated that speed into qualifying, posting a best time of 1m34.806s with five minutes remaining to cement his position at the top.
With less than a tenth separating Guinchard and Kattoulas in the final minutes, Elite Motorsport's Japanese-Greek contender gave it one final go on his last lap, but fell just short, his time being 0.039s away from the championship leader's effort.
Kattoulas had been on course to take race two pole, with that grid formed by each driver's second quickest times in the session, but Guinchard's own late lap of 1m34.837s fell just short of his outright best, but was enough to wrap up his double pole.
Behind the lead duo came the second Elite car of Ary Bansal, who despite a lack of pre-event testing owing to exams, still managed to lap just over a quarter of a second off the pole position time to secure third for both race one and two.
Fortec Motorsports' Jack Taylor was fourth quickest, just 0.015s further back and 0.034s clear of the second Hillspeed car of Leandro Juncos.
Elite's Isaac Phelps qualified sixth, but will serve a three place grid penalty for race one, with KMR Sport's Alex O'Grady a competitive seventh.
The Irishman was 0.050s quicker than the lead Arden Motorsport car of Leon Wilson, with Graham Brunton Racing's Callum Baxter ninth and Pace Performance's Stefan Bostandjiev completing a top-10 covered by just 0.768s.
The top-14 drivers in the session were all within a second of the pole position time.
For the race two grid, the top-three of Guinchard, Kattoulas and Bansal remain the same, with Phelps moving up to fourth ahead of Juncos, with O'Grady sixth. Taylor, Wilson, Douglas Motorsport's Luke Hilton and Baxter complete the top-10, this time covered by 0.827s.
The first race of the weekend is due to commence at 16.57, with live streaming coverage available via this link.
Provisional result
Provisional second fastest times (race two grid):
