Bianchi takes pole at Barcelona

ART's Bianchi set the pace during the early minutes of the session, which turned out to be when the track was at its quickest.

As had been the case in practice, nobody at the front was able to improve on their second runs, leaving Bianchi on pole from Giedo van der Garde.

Both front row men waited a long time before starting their second runs in the closing minutes, and van der Garde decided to abandon his without attempting another hot lap.

Joint championship leader Sam Bird (iSport) proved that focusing on race set-up in practice was no hindrance as he qualified third, with van der Garde's Addax team-mate Charles Pic completing the second row in fourth.

DAMS driver Grosjean was unable to repeat his dominant performance from practice and had to settle for fifth on the grid. This was despite having two runs, the second of which was no faster than his earlier effort.

Behind Davide Valsecchi (AirAsia) in sixth, Racing Engineering's Dani Clos and iSport's Marcus Ericsson were the only drivers in the top 10 to improve late in the session. Clos climbed from eighth to seventh on his second run, while Ericsson jumped from 11th to eighth.

The two cars of last year's championship-winning team Rapax will occupy the back row of the grid. Fabio Leimer stopped on track at Turn 5 with falling oil pressure before he had set a time, while Julian Leal will start last owing to the grid penalty he received for his part in the accident which badly injured Davide Rigon in Turkey.

Pos  Driver               Team                Time       Gap
 1.  Jules Bianchi        ART                 1m30.369s
 2.  Giedo van der Garde  Addax               1m30.473s  + 0.104s
 3.  Sam Bird             iSport              1m30.488s  + 0.119s
 4.  Charles Pic          Addax               1m30.616s  + 0.247s
 5.  Romain Grosjean      DAMS                1m30.807s  + 0.438s
 6.  Davide Valsecchi     AirAsia             1m30.820s  + 0.451s
 7.  Dani Clos            Racing Engineering  1m30.927s  + 0.558s
 8.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport              1m30.935s  + 0.566s
 9.  Stefano Coletti      Trident             1m30.974s  + 0.605s
10.  Luca Filippi         Super Nova          1m31.084s  + 0.715s
11.  Max Chilton          Carlin              1m31.192s  + 0.823s
12.  Josef Kral           Arden               1m31.447s  + 1.078s
13.  Luiz Razia           AirAsia             1m31.513s  + 1.144s
14.  Michael Herck        Coloni              1m31.527s  + 1.158s
15.  Alvaro Parente       Racing Engineering  1m31.636s  + 1.267s
16.  Esteban Gutierrez    ART                 1m31.645s  + 1.276s
17.  Kevin Ceccon         Coloni              1m31.670s  + 1.301s
18.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Trident             1m31.694s  + 1.325s
19.  Kevin Mirocha        Ocean               1m31.757s  + 1.388s
20.  Pal Varhaug          DAMS                1m31.779s  + 1.410s
21.  Fairuz Fauzy         Super Nova          1m31.821s  + 1.452s
22.  Jolyon Palmer        Arden               1m31.822s  + 1.453s
23.  Mikhail Aleshin      Carlin              1m31.977s  + 1.608s
24.  Julian Leal          Rapax               1m32.934s  + 2.565s
25.  Johnny Cecotto       Ocean               1m33.246s  + 2.877s
26.  Fabio Leimer         Rapax