Piquet grabs Nurburgring pole

Championship leader Piquet was one of only a few drivers to improve his time on his second set of tyres and scorched around in GP2-record pace, setting an unbeatable mark of 1:40.799.

This put him almost half a second up on the chasing pack in a session where the top 14 were covered by a second.

DAMS's Franck Perera held pole after the opening stint before being demoted by Piquet, but second was a great result for the Frenchman. For the third race in succession, Lewis Hamilton qualified third.

The Brit had a half spin on his second set of tyres at the chicane and clipped the back of Hiro Yoshimoto's BCN car. Neither car was damaged and Yoshimoto went on to claim an impressive fourth for the improved Spanish outfit.

Fifth went to free practice pacesetter Jose Maria Lopez, while Alex Premat made it two ART cars in the top six. Adam Carroll had his best session of the season to take seventh ahead of Nicolas Lapierre.

Imola winner Ernesto Viso starts ninth, Timo Glock tenth.

Lucas di Grassi's session ended in the gravel after he spun in the Durango. The Brazilian lines up 21st.


Pos  Driver        Team                      Time              Laps
 1.  Piquet Jr     Piquet Sports             1:40.799           11
 2.  Perera        DAMS                      1:41.241  + 0.442  14
 3.  Hamilton      ART Grand Prix            1:41.325  + 0.526  10
 4.  Yoshimoto     BCN Competicion           1:41.406  + 0.607   9 
 5.  Lopez         Super Nova International  1:41.471  + 0.672  12
 6.  Premat        ART Grand Prix            1:41.478  + 0.679  10
 7.  Carroll       Racing Engineering        1:41.576  + 0.777  12
 8.  Lapierre      Arden International Ltd   1:41.622  + 0.823  11
 9.  Viso          iSport International      1:41.664  + 0.865  13
10.  Glock         BCN Competicion           1:41.671  + 0.872  13
11.  Valles        Campos Racing             1:41.690  + 0.891  11
12.  Ammermueller  Arden International Ltd   1:41.768  + 0.969  10
13.  Piccione      DPR                       1:41.769  + 0.970  10
14.  Bruni         Trident Racing            1:41.770  + 0.971  11
15.  Zuber         Trident Racing            1:41.814  + 1.015  13
16.  Gommendy      iSport International      1:41.841  + 1.042  13
17.  Porteiro      Campos Racing             1:41.913  + 1.114  14
18.  Negrao        Piquet Sports             1:42.029  + 1.230  12
19.  Monfardini    DAMS                      1:42.096  + 1.297  11
20.  Pla           DPR                       1:42.162  + 1.363   9 
21.  Di Grassi     Durango                   1:42.192  + 1.393  12
22.  Hernandez     Durango                   1:42.513  + 1.714  11
23.  Filippi       FMS International         1:42.654  + 1.855  14
24.  Villa         Racing Engineering        1:42.784  + 1.985  10
25.  Fauzy         Super Nova International  1:43.151  + 2.352  14
26.  Tahinci       FMS International         1:43.812  + 3.013  10