Carbone leads the way into Super Pole

The Brazilian produced a superb final lap, after the chequered had been shown, to knock championship leader Giedo van der Garde off the top spot in the classification. Van der Garde had to settle for second, just six hundredths adrift.

Draco's Marco Barba was third fastest in today's dry session, underlying the competitiveness that the Spaniard shown by topping Thursday's wet/dry collective test.

Robert Wickens ended fourth for Carlin Motorsport, from Carbone's teammate Esteban Guerrieri in fifth and Nurburgring winner Miguel Molina sixth fastest.

Marco Bonamomi was the first of the drivers not to make the cut. The Italian Comtec driver had been up on van der Garde's first sector best, but lost time around the final part of the lap.

Mikhail Aleshin was fastest in the B group, which kicked off in exciting fashion thanks to some wild driving from Julien Jousse, placed second in the drivers' championship.

Jousse's first lap featured an unseemly front offside lock-up into the left-hand Virage du Musee corner. A spin followed at the Garage Vert, as Jousse appeared too keen to press home the advantage of racing at his local track.

Finally, at the halfway point in the session, Jousse veered off backwards into the tyres approaching the final corner, Raccordement, bringing out the red flags.

Consigned to finishing tenth, the Frenchman was the most high-profile scalp to fail to make it through into the Super Pole.