Davide Valsecchi fastest for DAMS in GP2 qualifying in Bahrain

The majority of frontrunners went straight out on the softer medium 'option' tyre, to make use of the Formula 1 rubber from the preceding free practice session. This worked a treat for Valsecchi, whose DAMS car first lapped in 1m41.327s and then, after a cool-down lap, dropped the pole time even further to 1m41.200s, which no one could beat.

Valsecchi was just over a quarter of a second faster than the Lotus-run car of Esteban Gutierrez on 1m41.479s, with his DAMS team-mate Felipe Nasr in third on 1m41.785s.

The top driver to switch to the options for his second run, rather than his first, was Racing Engineering's Fabio Leimer, who set his 1m41.789s with seven minutes remaining. Track temperature was down 10 degrees centigrade on this morning's free practice, making tyre pressure settings even more tricky to judge than usual.

Johnny Cecotto Jr will start fifth, another to leave his option tyres until his second run for Addax, ahead of Trident's Stephane Richelmi. Marcus Ericsson (iSport, who has a 10-place grid penalty for hitting Valsecchi in Malaysia) was seventh-fastest, followed by Sepang sprint race winner James Calado (Lotus).

Points leader Luis Razia will start down in ninth for Arden, alongside Max Chilton, whose Carlin machine lost a lot of pace since free practice. Series returnee Dani Clos was 14th fastest in the second Addax car.

The session was stopped after 13 minutes due to series returnee Brendon Hartley's broken front wing littering the track at the final corner. He was 21st quickest in his Ocean-run machine. Giedo van der Garde (Caterham, 12th) and Simon Trummer (Arden, 24th) were also reportedly involved in the incident, which the stewards are looking into.

Pos  Driver               Team                Time       Gap
 1.  Davide Valsecchi     DAMS                1m41.200s
 2.  Esteban Gutierrez    Lotus               1m41.479s  + 0.279s
 3.  Felipe Nasr          DAMS                1m41.785s  + 0.585s
 4.  Fabio Leimer         Racing Engineering  1m41.798s  + 0.598s
 5.  Johnny Cecotto       Addax               1m41.858s  + 0.658s
 6.  Stephane Richelmi    Trident             1m41.862s  + 0.662s
 7.  Marcus Ericsson      iSport              1m41.933s  + 0.733s
 8.  James Calado         Lotus               1m41.939s  + 0.739s
 9.  Luiz Razia           Arden               1m41.962s  + 0.762s
10.  Max Chilton          Carlin              1m41.980s  + 0.780s
11.  Rio Haryanto         Carlin              1m42.097s  + 0.897s
12.  Giedo van der Garde  Caterham            1m42.139s  + 0.939s
13.  Jolyon Palmer        iSport              1m42.156s  + 0.956s
14.  Dani Clos            Addax               1m42.158s  + 0.958s
15.  Tom Dillmann         Rapax               1m42.190s  + 0.990s
16.  Fabio Onidi          Coloni              1m42.374s  + 1.174s
17.  Rodolfo Gonzalez     Caterham            1m42.409s  + 1.209s
18.  Nathanael Berthon    Racing Engineering  1m42.427s  + 1.227s
19.  Julian Leal          Trident             1m42.456s  + 1.256s
20.  Fabrizio Crestani    Lazarus             1m42.706s  + 1.506s
21.  Brendon Hartley      Ocean               1m42.782s  + 1.582s
22.  Stefano Coletti      Coloni              1m42.853s  + 1.653s
23.  Nigel Melker         Ocean               1m42.895s  + 1.695s
24.  Simon Trummer        Arden               1m43.014s  + 1.814s
25.  Giancarlo Serenelli  Lazarus             1m43.907s  + 2.707s
26.  Ricardo Teixeira     Rapax               1m44.078s  + 2.878s