by Martin Jefferies

Adam Carroll needed little of the fabled Irish luck as he sped to a magnificent double pole position in the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport at Brands Hatch.

The Irishman will start from the front of the grid in tomorrow's sprint and feature races at the Kent circuit and, most importantly, looks to have a clear advantage over title rivals Portugal and Switzerland.

The three countries all have a mathematical chance of clinching the title and head into Sunday's showdown separated by a mere six points.

But with Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque starting the sprint race from fifth and the feature race from ninth, and with Switzerland's Neel Jani languishing in eighth and fourth, Carroll has taken a giant stride towards realising A1 Team Ireland's championship aspirations.

The 26-year-old told KentOnline: "I'm ready to do the job and so is the team, but we have two long races tomorrow and may the best person win!"

"We were a little bit unsure coming out of practice yesterday because we weren't very quick at all," the Irishman added. "It left me guessing but as soon as we fitted new tyres, I knew the car was really, really good and I just attacked and gave it everything."

Great Britain endured a challenging qualifying session, with Dan Clarke taking 13th in the sprint race scramble and 14th in the feature race shoot out.

Highlights of the day included shock second places for Mexico's Salvador Duran and Monaco's Clivio Piccione in the sprint and feature race sessions respectively.

Former F1 drivers Narain Karthikeyan (Team India) and Vitantonio Liuzzi (Team Italy) rarely troubled the front runners. Karthikeyan will start from seventh and 10th, while Liuzzi will start 16th and 18th.

Grid: Sprint race

1. Ireland (Adam Carroll), 1m11.615s
2. Mexico (Salvador Duran), +0.038s
3. Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen), +0.377s
4. USA (JR Hildebrand), +0.379s
5. Portugal (Filipe Albuquerque), +0.425s
6. New Zealand (Earl Bamber), +0.493s

Grid: Feature race

1. Ireland (Adam Carroll), 1m10.902
2. Monaco (Clivio Piccione), +0.183s
3. Netherlands (Jeroen Bleekemolen), +0.244s
4. Switzerland (Neel Jani), +0.436s
5. France (Nicolas Prost), +0.641s
6. New Zealand (Earl Bamber), +0.731s