Qualifying: Sarrazin on pole

Carlin Motorsport had a promising start to the weekend with its drivers taking a second place each. Narain Karthikeyan is on the front row for Race One, but the Indian driver - who is suffering from a bad back - admitted making too many mistakes in the afternoon and will start Race Two in fifth.

"The car was good for pole, but I made some small mistakes in the morning," he said. "And then in the afternoon I made lots of mistakes.

"I just hope that the adrenaline keeps the pain out of my mind tomorrow, and that I can concentrate well enough to keep going. The second race will be the hardest - I'll no doubt be suffering a bit more by then - so I'm going to give everything I've got into race one. I'm not going to throw away the chance of a podium finish by driving carefully."

Team-mate Bruce Jouanny will start fifth and second. He held off Bas Leinders and Franck Montagny to get well within 0.2s of Sarrazin's pole time in the second session. In the first session he reported being baulked by traffic and yellow flags, and dropped behind Marc Gene.

Series leader Montagny has not been as dominant here as in previous rounds. With the third and a fourth fastest times in the two sessions to his name, he complained that his engine was down on power.

Heikki Kovalainen was nothing if not consistent, with a pair of sixth places.

Stephane Sarrazin Racing Engineering 1m38.947s
Narain Karthikeyan Tata Team Carlin 1m39.147s
Franck Montagny Gabord Competicion 1m39.154s
Marc Gene Adrian Campos Motorsport 1m39.215s
Bruce Jouanny Carlin Motorsport 1m39.248s
Heikki Kovalainen Gabord Competicion 1m39.356s

Stephane Sarrazin Racing Engineering 1m39.302s
Bruce Jouanny Carlin Motorsport 1m39.457s
Bas Leinders Racing Engineering 1m39.534s
Franck Montagny Gabord Competicion 1m39.554s
Narain Karthikeyan Tata Team Carlin 1m39.751s
Heikki Kovalainen Gabord Competicion 1m39.843s