Lapierre takes surprise Spa pole

Lapierre (DAMS), who started the first-ever GP2 race from pole at Imola in 2005, saved his best run until last, demoting Filippi (Super Nova) with just three minutes remaining. The Bahrain sprint race winner will start from his first feature race pole of the season.

Filippi sat on pole for most of the session, and looked set to stay there despite a fracas with Markus Niemela (BCN), who balked him through Stavelot, after which Filippi showed his frustration by drawing alongside him.

Bruno Senna will start third for Arden, but hampered his own chances by spinning at the final chicane and stalling his engine. That meant he didn't get a run on his second set of tyres.

Senna will start alongside title protagonist Lucas di Grassi (ART), who did a great job after contact with Mike Conway (Super Nova) at the chicane just as he was starting his flying laps.

Even with an evil handling car, di Grassi was less than a quarter of a second off pole in fourth.

Andi Zuber will start fifth for iSport, bouncing back after his session-stopping shunt this morning.

He will share the third row with series leading teammate Timo Glock, who looked set for an attack on pole only to be balked at the final corner by Christian Bakkerud (DPR). He had to settle for sixth.

Adam Carroll (FMS) will start seventh, ahead of Kazuki Nakajima (DAMS), Campos twins Vitaly Petrov and Giorgio Pantano. Conway, who lost his front wing in his collision with di Grassi, lost any chance of improving and will start down in 12th.

The biggest moments of the session befell Ho-Pin Tung, who spun exiting Stavelot in his BCN car, and Karun Chandhok (Durango), who suffered a lurid slide at Pouhon which ended in the tyre wall. He was unhurt.

Pos  Driver         Team                Time
 1.  N. Lapierre    DAMS                1:56.884
 2.  L. Filippi     Super Nova            +0.011
 3.  B. Senna       Arden                 +0.221
 4.  L. Di Grassi   ART                   +0.247
 5.  A. Zuber       iSport                +0.336
 6.  T. Glock       iSport                +0.373
 7.  A. Carroll     FMS                   +0.406
 8.  K. Nakajima    DAMS                  +0.453
 9.  V. Petrov      Campos                +0.525
10.  G. Pantano     Campos                +0.740
11.  A. Negrao      Minardi               +1.048
12.  M. Conway      Super Nova            +1.081
13.  H. Tung        BCN Competition       +1.090
14.  J. Villa       Racing Engineering    +1.132
15.  S. Buemi       ART                   +1.217
16.  K. Chandhok    Durango               +1.285
17.  A. Zaugg       Arden                 +1.298
18.  A. Soucek      DPR                   +1.531
19.  R. Rodriguez   Minardi               +1.598
20.  K. Hirate      Trident               +1.643
21.  C. Bakkerud    DPR                   +1.954
22.  R. Risatti     Trident               +2.040
23.  B. Garcia      Durango               +2.041
24.  M. Niemela     BCN Competition       +2.405
25.  M. Martinez    Racing Engineering    +2.450
26.  J. Tahinci     FMS                   +3.202