Guerrieri claims finale pole in wet

The ISR racer dropped out of title contention following yesterday's opening race, but the Argentinean is guaranteed to finish third in the points after a commendable season in which he picked up five wins despite being forced to miss three races.

Intense overnight storms had drenched the track, although no further rain would fall during the half-hour qualifying session.

"It was so slippery out there, it was a matter of adapting to the car and the track," said Guerrieri. "I really wanted to get this last pole of the season. The car was quite difficult to drive, really not perfect, but we got the brakes at exactly the right temperature and everything seemed to work well."

Tech 1 Racing's Daniel Ricciardo earned a place on the front row with an effort some 0.470 seconds adrift of the pole time. The Australian is tied with his fellow championship protagonist Mikhail Aleshin on 128 points at the top of the drivers' standings.

In his highest starting position of the season, Greg Mansell will line up a superb third. The British Comtec racer is building a reputation as a wet weather specialist, and is hoping for more rain this afternoon.

"There have been times this year when we have struggled with the car, so it's nice to remind people that I am not slow!" said Greg. "The wet is mega because it is a great leveller. They say that in every category, but it is true. Usually it is about 90 per cent car and 10 per cent the driver, but in the wet it is more like 50/50. I hope it is wet for the race, but unfortunately I don't think it will be."

Pons Racing's Daniel Zampieri, another consistently strong performer in the rain, will start fourth. The Italian Ferrari academy driver echoed Mansell's views.

"I would have preferred it if the whole session had been wet," said Zampieri. "Still, it is much better than yesterday [when he qualified 22nd], but, you know, I always want more."

There were tense faces on the Carlin pitwall throughout the session. Championship contender Aleshin ended the morning in sixth. The Russian narrowly avoided hitting a spinning ISR car of Filip Salaquarda after the Czech spun across his bows exiting the Europcar corner early in the session. Aleshin later had a spin of his own exiting Turn 1.

The Aleshin camp will not be overjoyed to see that Ricciardo's Tech 1 team-mate, Carlin's British Formula 3 champion Jean-Eric Vergne, is in such close proximity in seventh. Should neither of the points leaders finish this afternoon's race, Ricciardo would take the title courtesy of his four victories to Aleshin's three.

"It is my first time driving the car in the wet," said Vergne, "but I am a little bit annoyed to be sixth. I was fast in the first two sectors, but then I got blocked at the end of the lap. I am sure we could have been third or fourth."

Among those who had off-track moments in the session were Aleshin's team-mate Jake Rosenzweig, Formula 2 champion Dean Stoneman and Interwetten's Spaniard Sergio Canamasas.

Pos  Driver             Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Esteban Guerrieri  ISR              1m56.515s
 2.  Daniel Ricciardo   Tech 1           1m56.985s  + 0.470s
 3.  Greg Mansell       Comtec           1m57.067s  + 0.552s
 4.  Daniel Zampieri    Pons             1m57.179s  + 0.664s
 5.  Mikhail Aleshin    Carlin           1m57.197s  + 0.682s
 6.  Jean Eric Vergne   Tech 1           1m57.363s  + 0.848s
 7.  Stefano Coletti    Comtec           1m57.807s  + 1.292s
 8.  Nelson Panciatici  Junior Lotus     1m57.818s  + 1.303s
 9.  Jon Lancaster      Fortec           1m57.911s  + 1.396s
10.  Sten Pentus        Fortec           1m57.945s  + 1.430s
11.  Jan Charouz        P1               1m57.952s  + 1.437s
12.  Albert Costa       Epsilon Euskadi  1m58.217s  + 1.702s
13.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP              1m58.521s  + 2.006s
14.  Walter Grubmuller  P1               1m58.602s  + 2.087s
15.  Filip Salaquarda   ISR              1m58.611s  + 2.096s
16.  Jake Rosenzweig    Carlin           1m58.725s  + 2.210s
17.  Nathanael Berthon  Draco            1m58.843s  + 2.328s
18.  Keisuke Kunimoto   Epsilon Euskadi  1m58.933s  + 2.418s
19.  Salvador Duran     FHV Interwetten  1m58.997s  + 2.482s
20.  Julian Leal        Draco            1m59.192s  + 2.677s
21.  Dean Stoneman      Junior Lotus     1m59.205s  + 2.690s
22.  Victor Garcia      KMP              1m59.246s  + 2.731s
23.  Federico Leo       Pons             1m59.309s  + 2.794s
24.  Sergio Canamasas   FHV Interwetten  2m01.136s  + 4.621s