Guerrieri takes pole at Hockenheim

Runner-up in Saturday's low-downforce race, the ISR driver was a decisive four tenths faster than Italian Formula 3 champion Daniel Zampieri.

A fourth victory of the year this afternoon would maintain Guerrieri's slender title hopes, as championship rivals Mikhail Aleshin and Daniel Ricciardo will start from unfamiliar territory in seventh and 10th respectively.

"I had a problem with my brake temperatures earlier in the session," said Guerrieri. "I had also started on old tyres. By the time we sorted out the brakes and I went out on new tyres, there was a red flag.

"That meant there was a lot of pressure for the final two laps. It's a very important result. I knew I had done a good lap, but I wasn't expecting it to be four tenths quicker than P2."

Comtec figured strongly in a thrilling session; Stefano Coletti was a protagonist for pole throughout and will head team-mate Greg Mansell on the second row.

The half-hour session was stopped with five minutes remaining. Shortly after going P5, Walter Grubmuller crashed his P1 Motorsport car backwards into the Nordkurve tyre wall, bringing out the red flags.

The session came alive after the restart and in the final two minutes the provisional pole-sitter changed on eight occasions.

Monegasque Coletti had been half a second clear of Draco's Nathanael Berthon at the time of the stoppage. On going green, Aleshin knocked him off top spot by 0.03s, only for Coletti to reclaim the position with a minute left on the clock.

Saturday podium men Guerrieri and Jon Lancaster were next to occupy the top spot, only for Coletti and Zampieri to steal the position back just as the chequered flag was thrown.

Both Lancaster and Guerrieri managed to squeeze in a final lap before the flag fell, and although Lancaster fleetingly toppled Zampieri's 'pole time,' the Leeds driver would subsequently be stripped of his fastest lap and demoted to fifth.

"I was penalised for crossing all four wheels over the white line at Turn 1," said Lancaster. "If I was over the line, it was by six inches maximum. But anyway, rules are rules.

"I also came across [Jean-Eric] Vergne when he was on an in-lap, and that cost me at least a tenth. We were easily as fast as Guerrieri, so it is disappointing to be starting fifth."

Renault Formula 1 reserve driver Jan Charouz will line up alongside Lancaster on the third row, the Czech's P1 Motorsport team-mate Grubmuller slipping to 23rd.

Pos  Driver             Team             Time       Gap
 1.  Esteban Guerrieri  ISR              1m26.415s
 2.  Daniel Zampieri    Pons             1m26.875s  + 0.460s
 3.  Stefano Coletti    Comtec           1m26.884s  + 0.469s
 4.  Greg Mansell       Comtec           1m26.919s  + 0.504s
 5.  Jon Lancaster      Fortec           1m26.939s  + 0.524s
 6.  Jan Charouz        P1               1m27.065s  + 0.650s
 7.  Mikhail Aleshin    Carlin           1m27.105s  + 0.690s
 8.  Nathanael Berthon  Draco            1m27.144s  + 0.729s
 9.  Albert Costa       Epsilon Euskadi  1m27.256s  + 0.841s
10.  Daniel Ricciardo   Tech 1           1m27.270s  + 0.855s
11.  Anton Nebylitskiy  KMP              1m27.274s  + 0.859s
12.  Jake Rosenzweig    Carlin           1m27.348s  + 0.933s
13.  Bruno Mendez       FHV Interwetten  1m27.354s  + 0.939s
14.  Jean-Eric Vergne   Tech 1           1m27.373s  + 0.958s
15.  Nelson Panciatici  Junior Lotus     1m27.404s  + 0.989s
16.  Federico Leo       Pons             1m27.437s  + 1.022s
17.  Sten Pentus        Fortec           1m27.468s  + 1.053s
18.  Julian Leal        Draco            1m27.529s  + 1.114s
19.  Filip Salaquarda   ISR              1m27.599s  + 1.184s
20.  Victor Garcia      KMP              1m27.840s  + 1.425s
21.  Sergio Canamasas   FHV Interwetten  1m27.899s  + 1.484s
22.  Keisuke Kunimoto   Epsilon Euskadi  1m28.095s  + 1.680s
23.  Walter Grubmuller  P1               1m28.671s  + 2.256s
24.  Daniil Move        Junior Lotus     1m29.198s  + 2.783s