Pole for Ekstrom at Adria

Ekstrom topped the Super Pole session despite Alesi's best effort, which had beaten the previous best time of Mercedes team-mate Christijan Albers by 0.013secs. Despite a poor first sector, Ekstrom got his A4 wound up over the second two-thirds of the twisty circuit, just snatching pole in thrilling style in the final dash to the line.

"After the first three corners I didn't think it would be a brilliant lap," said Ekstrom. "But I did a great last sector to get pole, so I'm really happy."

Alesi said: "It doesn't matter if you are 31-thousandths of a second away from pole or not, it doesn't change the position. But I'm happy enough with second."

Albers was third fastest, recovering well from a steering problem in the morning, followed by Gary Paffett (Mercedes) and Martin Tomczyk (Audi).

Opel's star turn Heinz-Harald Frentzen provided the shock of the day, the former F1 ace qualifying sixth and the best-placed Opel Vectra. He said: "I'm pleased with the result because the weekend didn't start so well yesterday. I couldn't keep the car on the right line, so I'm happy with where I've qualified today."

Tom Kristensen will start seventh for Audi, ahead of reigning champion Bernd Schneider, whose season has yet to catch fire. Timo Scheider is ninth for Opel, ahead of the Joest Audi of Frank Biela.

Opel's Peter Dumbreck will start from a lowly 17th, although he was only six-tenths away from pole position.