Green takes Zandvoort pole

Despite running an extra 20-kilos of weight compared to his Audi rivals, Green produced a lap of 1:32.189 seconds (not quite as good as his 1:32.038 stunner in Q2) to grab the top spot from Audi's title contender Tom Kristensen, Martin Tomczyk and Mattias Ekstrom.

"Pole position with 20-kilos more than the Audis is a special achievement, not only for me but for the team," commented Green. "The secret is to get everything out of the car in qualifying, that's where the laptime comes from. The front row is the best place to be and I'm confident ahead of the race."

Kristensen is confident ahead of the race: "Losing out to Jamie is not that bad - at least the right Merc is on pole! The plan for the race is to put as much pressure as possible on Jamie, and make sure I score more points than Bernd [Schneider] and Bruno [Spengler], who are my main championship rivals."

Spengler, who has won the last two races on the trot, will start fifth, ahead of Heinz-Harald Frentzen (Audi), series leader Schneider (Mercedes) and Pierre Kaffer, the only 2005-spec runner to make it into the final top eight shoot-out.

Missing the cut was Merc's Mika Hakkinen, who will start tenth, and Alexandros Margaritis, who collided in embarrassing fashion with Mercedes colleague Stefan Mucke in Q2 at Tarzan after both appeared to completely fail to register the other's existence.

This morning's pacesetter Christian Abt had to make do with 12th, while Jean Alesi (Mercedes) failed to even make it past the first session and will start 17th. Mathias Lauda is the top 2004-spec car in a creditable 13th overall.

Starting grid:

Pos  Driver           Car                    Time
 1.  Jamie Green      AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse  1:32.189
 2.  Tom Kristensen   Audi A4                1:32.264 + 0.075
 3.  Martin Tomczyk   Audi A4                1:32.277 + 0.088
 4.  Mattias Ekstrom  Audi A4                1:32.302 + 0.113
 5.  Bruno Spengler   AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse  1:32.760 + 0.571
 6.  H.H. Frentzen    Audi A4                1:32.806 + 0.617
 7.  Bernd Schneider  AMG-Mercedes C-Klasse  1:32.852 + 0.663
 8.  Pierre Kaffer    Audi A4                1:32.857 + 0.668
 9.  A. Margaritis    AMG Mercedes C-Klasse  1:33.093 + 0.904
10.  Mika Hakkinen    AMG Mercedes C-Klasse  1:33.115 + 0.926
11.  Timo Scheider    Audi A4                1:33.304 + 1.115
12.  Christian Abt    Audi A4                1:33.513 + 1.324
13.  Mathias Lauda    AMG Mercedes C-Klasse  1:33.928 + 1.739
14.  Stefan Mucke     AMG Mercedes C-Klasse  1:33.934 + 1.745
15.  Daniel La Rosa   AMG Mercedes C-Klasse  1:34.061 + 1.872
16.  Frank Stippler   Audi A4                1:34.211 + 2.022
17.  Jean Alesi       AMG Mercedes C-Klasse  1:34.316 + 2.127
18.  Nicolas Kiesa    Audi A4                1:34.694 + 2.505
19.  Vanina Ickx      Audi A4                1:34.768 + 2.579
20.  Susie Stoddart   AMG Mercedes C-Klasse  1:35.256 + 3.067