Van der Garde takes pole at Monza

The Dutchman has been a consistent presence among the leading drivers throughout two days of practice, and edged out Comtec's local driver Marco Bonanomi by a tenth of a second in the B qualifying group.

"It's been a great weekend," grinned Van der Garde. "This is my first pole-position since an F3 race at Le Mans. It was such a good lap that I didn't push as hard as I could have in the last corner, as I didn't want to risk everything.

Van der Garde's achievement was heightened by the strength of opposition in his qualifying group, decided by splitting the grid into odd and even race numbers. The result of the draw was a little lop-sided, with many pre-season favourites in the B group.

He will take his place at the head of the grid on Sunday's second race alongside Robert Wickens, who was fastest in the slower A group that took to the track first. Bonanomi will start third, ahead of Prema Powerteam's Alvaro Barba.

At the opposite end of the grid Guillaume Moreau finished last, having completed just one lap in his KTR machine. "We've had problems with the down-change on the gearbox since we arrived here," he said. "It's been locking up the rear wheels and now something has broken, although I'm no sure what."

There have been a number of small tweaks to the car since the final collective test in Barcelona. Although Van der Garde's pole-position time was three tenths slower than that set by Mikhail Aleshin in 2007, the minimum weight has been increased by a further five kilograms, to ensure the heavier drivers are not penalised unfairly against their slighter competitors.

A larger diameter brake master cylinder has also been introduced in response to concerns from some drivers that the brake pedal was too long.

Group A
 
Pos Driver                 Team           Time         Gap
 1. Robert Wickens         Carlin         1:37.004
 2. Alvaro Barba           Prema          1:37.621  +0.617
 3. Pasquale di Sabatino   Comtec         1:37.668  +0.664
 4. Charles Pic            Tech 1         1:37.711  +0.707
 5. Borja Garcia           RC             1:37.719  +0.715
 6. Marco Barba            Draco          1:37.754  +0.750
 7. Pablo Sanchez          Interwetten    1:37.848  +0.844
 8. Daniil Move            KTR            1:37.984  +0.890
 9. Alex Marsoin           Epsilon        1:37.938  +0.934
10. Pippa Mann             P1             1:38.348  +1.344
11. Julian Theobald        Fortec         1:38.508  +1.504
12. Claudio Cantelli       Ultimate       1:38.653  +1.649
13. Maximo Cortes          Pons           1:39.042  +2.038

 
Group B
 
Pos Driver                 Team           Time         Gap
 1. Giedo van der Garde    P1             1:36.480
 2. Marco Bonanomi         Comtec         1:36.582  +0.102
 3. Fabio Carbone          Ultimate       1:36.765  +0.285
 4. Bertrand Baguette      Draco          1:36.785  +0.305
 5. Salvador Duran         Interwetten    1:36.925  +0.445
 6. Julien Jousse          Tech 1         1:37.047  +0.567
 7. Mikhail Aleshin        Carlin         1:37.414  +0.934
 8. James Walker           Fortec         1:37.461  +0.981
 9. Miguel Molina          Prema          1:37.704  +1.224
10. Marcos Martinez        Pons           1:37.731  +1.251
11. Mario Romancini        Epsilon        1:37.848  +1.368
12. Aleix Alcaraz          RC             1:38.703  +2.223
13. Guillaume Moreau       KTR            1:39.136  +2.656