Rodriguez pips Kobayashi to pole

The Piquet Sports driver waited until his final lap to set a time of 1:45.233, which nudged Kamui Kobayashi out of P1 by just under two tenths of a second.

Up to that point, Kobayashi had looked secure on top of the timesheet, having been quickest right through practice and qualifying until Rodriguez's last-gasp effort.

Giedo van der Garde continued his good form from testing last week to finish third quickest, and will be joined on the second row by Vitaly Petrov.

Proceedings were interrupted twice by red flags, the first of which was triggered when Super Nova's James Jakes crashed heavily at the final corner. He ran wide over the kerbs, flicking his car across the track and into a tank-slapper against the concrete barrier.

Hamad Al Fardan was responsible for the other red after spinning his iSport car on the exit of Turn 4 and stalling in the middle of the track.

Pos Driver                Team          Time      Laps
 1. Roldan Rodriguez      Piquet        1:45.233    13
 2. Kamui Kobayashi       DAMS          1:45.418    10
 3. Javier Villa          Super Nova    1:45.643    14
 4. Sakon Yamamoto        ART           1:45.643    10
 5. Giedo van der Garde   iSport        1:45.800    13
 6. Vitaly Petrov         Campos        1:45.843    14
 7. Jerome d'Ambrosio     DAMS          1:45.885    11
 8. Davide Valsecchi      Durango       1:46.009     7
 9. Earl Bamber           Meritus       1:46.060    11
10. Luca Filippi          BCN           1:46.084    15
11. Luiz Razia            Arden         1:46.130    13
12. Diego Nunes           Piquet        1:46.169    12
13. Nelson Philippe       ART           1:46.171    15
14. Hamad Al Fardan       iSport        1:46.305     8
15. Mika Maki             Arden         1:46.504    12
16. Chris van der Drift   Trident       1:46.595    13
17. Yuki Sekiguchi        DPR           1:46.733    13
18. Sergio Perez          Campos        1:46.809    13
19. Michael Herck         DPR           1:46.843    15
20  Giacomo Ricci         Trident       1:47.010    13
21. Hiroki Yoshimoto      BCN           1:47.231    12
22. Carlos Iaconelli      Durango       1:47.355    16
23. Alex Yoong            Meritus       1:47.652    12
24. James Jakes           Super Nova    1:49.026     3
25  Kevin Nai Chia Chen   FMS           1:49.413    15
26  Andi Zuber            FMS           no time