Qualifying 2: Montagny's double top

The Gabord Competicion driver was made to work hard for his top slot the second time around however, and for most of the 30-minute session Williams test driver Marc Gene sat at the head of the timesheets.

It wasn't to be the Adrian Campos Motorsport driver's day, though and with just over seven minutes remaining Montagny recorded a lap that would snatch the pole. The Frenchman went quicker again towards the end of the session, recording a best time of 1m38.996s.

Montagny said: "I did a good job today and we are still at the front. Tomorrow will be different because the weather will not be the same."

Third place on the race two grid went to the Epsilon Eskudi car of Jean Christophe Ravier, who improved on his race one qualifying time by the best part of three seconds, despite conditions being almost identical. Another big gain came from the second Gabord entry of Heikki Kovalainen, who took fourth.

Carlin Motorsport's Bruce Jouanny did a good well to take fifth, ahead of former Arrows Formula 1 driver Enrique Bernoldi. It was not such a good session for local hero Bas Leinders, who will start back in 10th after spinning in the session. His Racing Engineering team-mate Stephane Sarrazin also spun, which meant he had to settle for eighth place.

Franck Montagny Gabord Competicion 1m38.966s
Marc Gene Adrian Campos Motorsport 1m39.274s
Jean Christophe Ravier Epsilon Euskadi 1m39.585s
Heikki Kovalainen Gabord Competicion 1m39.684s
Bruce Jouanny Carlin Motorsport 1m39.755s
Enrique Bernoldi GD Racing 1m40.025s
Polo Villaamil RC Motorsport 1m40.132s
Stephane Sarrazin Racing Engineering 1m40.374s
Narain Karthikeyan Tata Team Carlin 1m40.598s
Bas Leinders Racing Engineering 1m40.664s