Maldonado on pole for race 2

Michael Aleshin followed his race one pole with another front row grid position, and the Russian will be looking to make a stronger start than yesterday. Aleshin's time was set in the earlier, wetter session.

Alvaro Parente lines up third after a last-gasp effort, but the surprise of the session was debutant Marcos Martinez who starts fourth.

The EuroInternational driver put in an excellent display of wet weather driving, and his result comes from having genuine pace, not because of favourable conditions.

Martinez comes from the Spanish F3 series, where he has scored one victory this year at Valencia, albeit with the aid of a reverse grid.

"Yesterday was tough adapting to the power and carbon brakes," said Martinez. "In the wet, though, driving (a World Series car) is not very different to my F3 car. I don't know exactly why we were so quick, but I was relaxed and the times were coming."

In the split-qualifying format, the first groups' session was delayed by ten minutes because of fog and poor weather.

The conditions allowed Robbie Kerr to display his talents, and the English KTR driver traded fastest time with, first Borja Garcia, then Michael Aleshin.

When red flags were brought out with five minutes of the session remaining, Kerr remained fastest ahead of Garcia.

As the track dried, the field queued at the pit lane exit for a re-start. Andy Soucek was first in line and went fastest, benefiting from a clear track. Soucek then spun at the Veedol chicane on his next tour.

The incident cost Garcia and Pavlovic time as the Interwetten.com car rejoined in front of them. However, there were no such delays for Aleshin, who was quickest when the dust settled.

In the second group Steven Kane and Davide Valsecchi set the early pace for Epsilon Euskadi. Carlin's new driver Adrian Zaugg looked a little wild with a spin at the Veedol chicane, but was soon to get into his stride.

With six minutes to go, Maldonado toppled Kane, and Alx Danielsson also moved ahead of the Northern Irishman.

"The car was really good for five laps," said Kane, "but then the tyres pressures started to go up and we lost all grip. It's very disappointing after looking really strong."

With everyone out on the drying track, the order changed frenetically. Zaugg was looking much more assured and moved up to second, but unfortunately for the South Africa had another spin at Veedol.

Zaugg was bumped down the order but was pleased with the promise he'd shown," I was told if I could have finished that lap I would have ended in the top three, still I've shown a big improvement over the weekend."

Parente and Montanari timed their last laps perfectly, following each other over the finish as the last runners to put in a time.

With the best of the conditions they moved into second and third places respectively, but were unable to remove Maldonado from the top-spot.

Full results will be added shortly...