Italy spring surprise in final practice

However, Piscopo is understood to have used a set of new tyres to set the time, a 1:21.685, which was just 0.052 seconds faster than the opposition.

South Africa's Adrian Zaugg set the early pace before top spot was taken by Jonathan Cochet's French car on 1:21.738. He stayed on top for a while, as second placed changed hands between Jonny Reid (New Zealand), Franky Cheng (China), Adam Carroll (Ireland) and Neel Jani (Switzerland).

Cochet, who will make his A1GP race debut tomorrow, was only toppled late on by Piscopo. However, he will take great confidence into qualifying with his second position, ahead of Jani, Carroll, Cheng and Reid.

Yesterday's pace-setter Oliver Jarvis was a subdued ninth fastest for Team Great Britain, three-tenths off the pace.

The one-hour session was disrupted on four occasions, with the first red flag to retrieve the spun car of Team Lebanon's Jimmy Auby from Turn 4. The second was for debris on the track, after one of the cars ran over the sleeping policeman on the exit of the chicane, dislodging one of them.

Two spectacular moments also resulted in stoppages, with Portugal's Felipe Albuquerque spinning into the wall mid-way through the Peraltada and local hero David Garza (Mexico) flew through the air at Turn 4 after he lost control and spun. His car was launched by a kerb on the unused part of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Both drivers were unhurt, but their cars sustained damage.

Pos  Driver               Team            Time               Laps
 1.  Edoardo Piscopo      Italy           1:21.685           28
 2.  Jonathan Cochet      France          1:21.738  + 0.053  30
 3.  Neel Jani            Switzerland     1:21.758  + 0.073  25
 4.  Adam Carroll         Ireland         1:21.841  + 0.156  18
 5.  Cheng Cong Fu        China           1:21.873  + 0.188  36
 6.  Jonny Reid           New Zealand     1:21.898  + 0.213  29
 7.  Jonathan Summerton   USA             1:21.906  + 0.221  27
 8.  Oliver Jarvis        Great Britain   1:21.930  + 0.245  31
 9.  Adrian Zaugg         South Africa    1:21.971  + 0.286  31
10.  Narain Karthikeyan   India           1:22.000  + 0.315  19
11.  Robert Wickens       Canada          1:22.094  + 0.409  19
12.  Michael Ammermüller  Germany         1:22.137  + 0.452  27
13.  Bruno Junqueira      Brazil          1:22.162  + 0.477  26
14.  Adam Khan            Pakistan        1:22.195  + 0.510  34
15.  Jeroen Bleekemolen   Netherlands     1:22.205  + 0.520  27
16.  Filipe Albuquerque   Portugal        1:22.249  + 0.564  8
17.  Alex Yoong           Malaysia        1:22.442  + 0.757  30
18.  Satrio Hermanto      Indonesia       1:22.753  + 1.068  30
19.  John Martin          Australia       1:23.292  + 1.607  28
20.  Jimmy Auby           Lebanon         1:23.343  + 1.658  34
21.  Filip Salaquarda     Czech Republic  1:23.611  + 1.926  17
22.  David Garza          Mexico          1:24.148  + 2.463  12