Liuzzi takes fifth pole

Liuzzi has dominated the F3000 championship this season and has only failed to win once, when he picked up a puncture at the Nurburgring at the beginning of June. That cost him the championship lead to Toccacelo, but Liuzzi recovered his position at the top of the points after his fourth win of the year at Magny-Cours last weekend. On that occasion Toccacelo failed to score because of a fluffed pitstop.

F3000 returnee Tomas Enge, who finished second in France last time out for Ma-Con Engineering and won this event when he last competed in F3000 in 2002, is third on the grid just 0.040s shy of a front row spot. Alongside him on the grid is Argentinian driver Jose Maria Lopez, the session's fastest rookie, in the CMS Performance car.

Patrick Freisacher, another podium finisher in Magny-Cours, was fifth fastest for Coloni, ahead of Raffaele Giammaria, Esteban Guerrieri and Tony Schmidt. Robert Doornbos and reigning British Formula 3 champion Alan van der Merve completed the top ten.

Durango's Yannick Schroeder failed to set a time within the required 107 percent limit after suffering technical problems throughout the session. He went out on track right at the end of the 40 minutes, but collided with Enge at Club corner. Both continued, but it is unclear whether the Frenchman will be allowed to take part in the race.

Someone who will certainly not be taking part is Can Artam whose appeal against a one-race ban for dangerous driving has been rejected. The Coloni driver received his ban for spinning into a gravel trap where marshals were recovering Lopez's car during the race at Magny-Cours.