Imperfect Heidfeld takes pole again

It was a slightly ragged display by the normally consistent young German, however, and in his efforts to secure pole he ran wide on a couple of occasions.

'My car wasn't perfect, that's for sure,' he said, "but it was obviously good enough to do the job.

'This is a strange circuit, very bumpy and unlike any other we do during the season. Trying to find the right set-up is not an easy job."

The quickest man in the other practice session was Brazilian Bruno Junqueira - but it is not certain that he will be able to take up his place at the head of the field.

The Petrobras Lola driver spun early in his practice session and had to be pushed by marshals to restart.

The penalty for receiving outside assistance is, traditionally, exclusion from the rest of the practice session - and Junqueira had not registered a qualifying time to that point.

The team protested against the decision, however, and a final decision had still to be made at the time of writing.

If Junqueira is excluded, his place at the front will be taken by series leader Gonzalo Rodriguez, who admitted he had to work extra hard to get anywhere near Junqueira's pace.

'The balance was all over the place,' he said, 'and so it was a real fight trying to do the time.

'Maybe I could have been a little faster, but I got held up a little towards the end.'

Rodriguez's Astromega team-mate Justin Wilson qualified as best of the British drivers, on row three.

Jamie Davies (European Edenbridge) and Kevin McGarrity (Nordic) also made the race, but Davies's team-mate Oliver Gavin crashed to earth after his excellent fourth place in Monaco.

Handling problems left him outside the top 13 in his session and he thus won't be racing on Saturday.


Qualifying Times - Odd Numbers