Premat Takes Pole in Magny Cours

Premat topped the timesheets with a lap of 1:25.132, a time which was more that two seconds quicker than the fastest set in this morning's free practice session by teammate Rosberg.

With conditions far hotter than the earlier session this was to be expected, and the majority of the grid set notably faster times than this morning as the drivers circulated under a brilliant, sunny sky.

Adam Carroll had set the early pace with a lap of 1:25.525, but he was unable to improve and will line up fifth on the grid, with fellow championship hopefuls Heikki Kovalainen (fourth) and Scott Speed (sixth) surrounding him.

Gimmi Bruni, currently fourth in the championship and hoping to take a good haul of points in the opening race, was disappointed to line up eleventh on the grid - his team changed his engine between sessions today, and he was unable to run at the pace of his fellow championship contenders.

The session was almost entirely devoid of on-track incidents: Neel Jani ended the session in the gravel on his second lap out, resulting in a time which puts him squarely last on the grid tomorrow.

With the first three drivers split by just one tenth, and the top twelve by a mere second, there are likely to be fireworks at the start of the race, which starts at 2.45 local time tomorrow afternoon.

Pos  Driver      Team                      Time              Laps
 1.  Premat      ART Grand Prix            1:25.132           10
 2.  Lopez       DAMS                      1:25.209 + 0.077   14
 3.  Rosberg     ART Grand Prix            1:25.245 + 0.113   10
 4.  Kovalainen  Arden International       1:25.402 + 0.270    8
 5.  Carroll     Super Nova International  1:25.525 + 0.393   16
 6.  Speed       iSport International      1:25.620 + 0.488   11
 7.  Lapierre    Arden International       1:25.848 + 0.716    8
 8.  Piquet Jr.  Hitech Piquet Sports      1:25.863 + 0.731   12
 9.  Pantano     Super Nova International  1:25.867 + 0.735   13
10.  Yoshimoto   BCN Competicion           1:26.019 + 0.887   10
11.  Bruni       Coloni Motorsport         1:26.096 + 0.964   12
12.  Pla         DPR                       1:26.158 + 1.026   10
13.  Fauzy       DAMS                      1:26.519 + 1.387   15
14.  Garcia      Racing Engineering        1:26.766 + 1.634   10
15.  Jani        Racing Engineering        1:26.822 + 1.690    3
16.  Viso        BCN Competicion           1:26.858 + 1.726   15
17.  Monfardini  Durango                   1:27.080 + 1.948   12
18.  Alvarez     Campos Racing             1:27.173 + 2.041   11
19.  Negrao      Hitech Piquet Sports      1:27.178 + 2.046   14
20.  Hernandez   Campos Racing             1:27.247 + 2.115   14
21.  Sharp       DPR                       1:27.255 + 2.123   13
22.  Lauda       Coloni Motorsport         1:27.478 + 2.346   14
23.  Piccione    Durango                   1:27.691 + 2.559   11
24.  Artam       iSport International      1:28.695 + 3.563   13