Qualifying 2: Bourdais takes hat-trick

The Czech set the fastest time of the second session, but Bourdais' benchmark from the first proved enough to secure the pole.

"The car was really efficient once again," said the Frenchman. "You are always striving pole, but this time it was really close."

The track was at its quickest in the opening minutes of the first session. Rubber laid down from the Formula 1 cars provided greater grip, but it decreased as time went on.

Enge won this race last year, when he led from the start. He knows his best hope to taking a first victory of the season is to take the lead from the start, just as he did from Justin Wilson in 2001. "I don't think there will be any overtaking, even though it is easier in these [new] cars," he said.

The main drivers who did manage to move up the order in the second session were Brazilians Ricardo Mauricio and Rodrigo Sperafico. The pair will start fifth and sixth on the grid. Petrobras Junior drivers Antonio Pizzonia and Ricardo Sperafico also improved after their difficult first sessions and will start ninth and 10th.

Pizzonia's problem that stopped him from running at the start of the first session was a chronic misfire. The team had been forced to change the engine on his Lola yesterday after it spewed out oil when they started it up. They discovered the misfire just before the start of the session and worked for 20 minutes to solve it. But that meant he missed running when the track was at its best.

For combined qualifying session times, click here.