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Grosjean grabs last-gasp Imola pole

Romain Grosjean grabbed pole position from Sam Bird in the dying seconds of qualifying for the GP2 Asia finale at a sunny Imola

Practice pacesetter Bird (iSport) had looked like he had the top spot wrapped up after moving to the head of the order with 10 minutes to go and then improving his time to a 1m27.384s.

Grosjean seemed unlikely to find enough of a gain on his last run to beat the Briton, but the DAMS driver then produced a 1m27.067s on his final lap to repeat his Abu Dhabi pole. Bird was already celebrating in parc ferme when Grosjean crossed the line to take pole away.

Coloni's Michael Herck took an impressive third, having held provisional pole for a while, with points leader Jules Bianchi fourth for ART.

Giedo van der Garde, who had been fastest in this morning's opening session, took fifth for Addax, with Josef Kral (Arden), Marcus Ericsson (iSport), Jolyon Palmer (Arden), Davide Valsecchi (AirAsia) and Mikhail Aleshin (Carlin) completing the top 10.

Returnee Luca Filippi was left at the back of the grid due to a driveshaft problem on his Coloni car.

Pos  Driver               Team                Time       Gap
 1.  Romain Grosjean      DAMS                1m27.067s
 2.  Sam Bird             iSport              1m27.384s  + 0.317s
 3.  Michael Herck        Coloni              1m27.558s  + 0.491s
 4.  Jules Bianchi        ART                 1m27.676s  + 0.609s
 5.  Giedo van der Garde  Addax               1m27.735s  + 0.668s
 6.  Josef Kral           Arden               1m27.834s  + 0.767s
 7.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport              1m27.872s  + 0.805s
 8.  Jolyon Palmer        Arden               1m27.898s  + 0.831s
 9.  Davide Valsecchi     AirAsia             1m27.909s  + 0.842s
10.  Mikhail Aleshin      Carlin              1m27.988s  + 0.921s
11.  Luiz Razia           AirAsia             1m28.073s  + 1.006s
12.  Andrea Caldarelli    Ocean               1m28.093s  + 1.026s
13.  Fabio Leimer         Rapax               1m28.143s  + 1.076s
14.  Oliver Turvey        Ocean               1m28.151s  + 1.084s
15.  Esteban Gutierrez    ART                 1m28.160s  + 1.093s
16.  Stefano Coletti      Trident             1m28.194s  + 1.127s
17.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Trident             1m28.310s  + 1.243s
18.  Max Chilton          Carlin              1m28.332s  + 1.265s
19.  Pal Varhaug          DAMS                1m28.357s  + 1.290s
20.  Dani Clos            Racing Engineering  1m28.373s  + 1.306s
21.  Fairuz Fauzy         Super Nova          1m28.382s  + 1.315s
22.  Johnny Cecotto       Super Nova          1m28.490s  + 1.423s
23.  Charles Pic          Addax               1m28.549s  + 1.482s
24.  Julian Leal          Rapax               1m28.644s  + 1.577s
25.  Nathanael Berthon    Racing Engineering  1m28.646s  + 1.579s
26.  Luca Filippi         Coloni

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