Pic claims first GP2 pole in Abu Dhabi

Championship leader Davide Valsecchi had been in front for the majority of the half hour, but Arden's Pic mounted an increasingly strong challenge in the closing stages before claiming first place with a 1m52.497s lap.

Valsecchi's iSport team-mate Oliver Turvey then jumped up to second, just 0.020 seconds behind Pic, to complete an all-rookie front row, ahead of the round one winner.

Formula 3 Euro Series champion Jules Bianchi will start his first GP2 race from fourth place for ART, having made steady gains throughout qualifying. Alexander Rossi (Meritus) and Javier Villa (Arden) fill the third row, followed by Bianchi's team-mate Sam Bird, who held a provisional top three spot early on.

Practice pacesetter Luca Filippi was in the pole fight at first in the other Meritus entry, but then stopped on track on his third lap when the team spotted smoke from the rear of the car. He subsequently tumbled right back to 20th place.

It was also a disastrous session for the Coloni team, with Alberto Valerio not getting out at all due to gearbox damage from his practice crash, and Will Bratt spinning and getting beached on a kerb in the opening minutes.

Pos  Driver                Team        Time       Gap
 1.  Charles Pic           Arden       1m52.497s
 2.  Oliver Turvey         iSport      1m52.517s  + 0.020s
 3.  Davide Valsecchi      iSport      1m52.603s  + 0.106s
 4.  Jules Bianchi         ART         1m52.842s  + 0.345s
 5.  Alexander Rossi       Meritus     1m52.861s  + 0.364s
 6.  Javier Villa          Arden       1m52.979s  + 0.482s
 7.  Sam Bird              ART         1m53.003s  + 0.506s
 8.  Edoardo Piscopo       DAMS        1m53.086s  + 0.589s
 9.  Giacomo Ricci         DPR         1m53.134s  + 0.637s
10.  Christian Vietoris    DAMS        1m53.183s  + 0.686s
11.  Sergio Perez          Addax       1m53.407s  + 0.910s
12.  Daniel Zampieri       Rapax       1m53.491s  + 0.994s
13.  Giedo van der Garde   Addax       1m53.509s  + 1.012s
14.  Fabio Leimer          Ocean       1m53.611s  + 1.114s
15.  Josef Kral            Super Nova  1m53.685s  + 1.188s
16.  Vladimir Arabadzhiev  Rapax       1m53.687s  + 1.190s
17.  Dani Clos             Trident     1m53.982s  + 1.485s
18.  Max Chilton           Ocean       1m54.036s  + 1.539s
19.  Michael Herck         DPR         1m54.074s  + 1.577s
20.  Luca Filippi          Meritus     1m54.121s  + 1.624s
21.  Marcus Ericsson       Super Nova  1m54.723s  + 2.226s
22.  Plamen Kralev         Trident     1m58.274s  + 5.777s
23.  Will Bratt            Coloni      2m02.517s  + 10.020s
24.  Alberto Valerio       Coloni