ART boss tips Grosjean to beat Senna

Senna beat Grosjean to pole by just 0.122s after the Frenchman had led the way for the first half of the session. Grosjean was unable to respond, blaming the team's strategy for putting him back on track just as other cars were leaving the pits, leaving him prone to being held up by cars on their start-up laps.

Vasseur said: "Pole position pace was there, but Romain could not improve because of the traffic. But he has the pace to win tomorrow."

Grosjean added: "The traffic was the worst I'd seen all season. The strategy was not so good, because I was on track as people were coming out of the pitlane. I struggled in that traffic, but I know a 1:26.9 [Senna's pole time] was possible.

"It's frustrating because I was P1 in free practice and knew I could do it again. It was a very tricky decision when to use the second set of tyres, and it ended in a big mess."

Senna, meanwhile, was delighted with his second pole position on the trot.

"We went the wrong way with set-up in free practice but we made some changes, which was a risk, and the car was really good," he said. "It was a really good lap, and it was nice to finish the lap in the perfect way - with no incidents on the way to pole [referring to Magny-Cours when he crashed exiting the final corner on his pole position lap]."