Magny Cours qualifying

The Frenchman has been improving steadily in his first year in the series, and actually qualified on the front row for the Monaco round, but was robbed of the chance to demonstrate what he was capable of during the race after colliding with David Saelens.

The Gauloises Jr driver held the pole right through the second session, but this continuity belies what was a distinctly frenetic qualifying towards the end of the second session.

Early on, most drivers failed to improve on their first session times, but with around twenty minutes to go in the second half-hour period, the order began to change rapidly.

Fortec returnee Mario Haberfeld leapt to second in his first race since breaking a leg at the Barcelona round. A fraction later Yves Olivier crashed his Witmeur KTR car into Kristian Kolby's DAMS example in a desperate attempt to get into the race. He locked up his brakes going into the hairpin and connected heavily with Kolby's Lola. This incident ruined both drivers' chance of starting the race.

After languishing in the lower reaches of the top ten for most of qualifying, early-season points leader Nicolas Minassian signalled his intent to challenge for a rapidly-receding title once more by displacing Haberfeld. Considering Bruno Junqueira's uncharacteristically lacklustre performance, Minassian must be relishing his chance to make up ground on the series leader.

At the same time, Minassian's early season points rival Mark Webber jumped into sixth - potentially his best qualifying spot since Silverstone in April. David Saelens, not to be outdone by his Super Nova team mate Minassian also executed a surprise jump into the top four.

Fernando Alonso, who had held second after the first session, but was steadily forced down the order as others improved, almost had the last word. The Spaniard slid his Astromega Lola around Magny-Cours in a series of lurid powerslides to snatch third place.

Arden's Darren Manning was not quite so lucky, and though he improved on his fourth-best first session time, ended up eighth. Also left in the doldrums was series leader Bruno Junqueira, who will risk losing a large chunk of his currently formidable series lead if Minassian wins. The Brazilian ended up ninth.

Last word proper was reserved for Bourdais who sat out an anxious few minutes in the pits as the field attempted to topple him. It was not to be, and Bourdais hung on to record his first F3000 pole.

1	Bourdais        1m27.071
2	Minassian       +0.250
4	Saelens         +0.307
5	Haberfeld       +0.339
6	Montagny        +0.356
7	Webber          +0.385
8	Manning         +0.484
9	Junqueira       +0.490
10	Enge            +0.525