Guerrieri on pole at wet Barcelona

It was the Argentinian's second pole in the category since entering the championship at round four in Silverstone.

"When you jump in one of these cars you always give 100%," he said. "Even though I was fastest in my qualifying group, and probably through to Super Pole, I pushed for another three laps leaving absolutely no margin.

"I had no idea at that time that the Super Pole would be cancelled, but going flat-out in those laps gave me the few tenths I needed to be quicker than Duran in the other group."

Lap times were some 20 seconds slower than in Friday's dry practice.

Charles Pic was the first driver to make an indiscretion on his out lap and got beached in the gravel at the turn five. The session was red flagged and the Frenchman took no further part in proceedings.

The incident was a blow to Tech 1's title ambitions in the teams' championship. At the time of the stoppage only eight drivers had set times. Marco Barba was fastest on a 1:57.490, ahead of Guerrieri and Bertrand Baguette.

Guerrieri briefly moved into P1 on the restart, only to be bumped back down the order by Baguette. As lap times gradually improved, Marco Bonanomi and James Walker put in strong laps to hold first and second positions.

Guerrieri then established himself at the top of the timesheets by setting a 1m54.314 with six minutes remaining.

The session was stopped for a second time when Sergey Afanasiev spun into the gravel at the turn seven chicane, but despite losing his fastest lap for causing the interruption, the Russian rookie's second fastest time was sufficient to clinch the final place in the Super Pole in sixth.

Baguette cemented second, six tenths of a second away from Guerrieri.

Fortec's Walker was third from Bonanomi and Julien Jousse. The group was depleted by the absence of champion Giedo van de Garde, who hopes to return from the GP2 race in China to start at the back of the grid for race two on Sunday.

In the A group, Duran appeared in formidable form and the Mexican's first flying lap was some two seconds faster than the opposition.

Prema's Spanish drivers, Miguel Molina and Alvaro Barba, occupied second and third places until Barba was caught out at turn five and parked backwards in the gravel.

The spin resulted in a full course yellow and Barba had his fastest time deleted. The Valencia driver had the further ignominy of dropping down the order when the caution was lifted.

Miguel Molina and Carlin's Mikhail Aleshin finished in second and third, while Robert Wickens and Fairuz Fauzy hauled themselves up the order with last lap efforts in fourth and fifth. Fabio Carbone clung onto sixth and the final place in the Super Pole, which sadly turned into a non-event as the rain became torrential.

Incidents to Carlin's Mikhail Aleshin and Comtec's Marco Bonanomi caused two red-flags. The session was eventually abandoned at the half-way point with no driver having set a time. Bonanomi underwent a routine check-up at the medical centre, but sustained no serious injuries in his accident.