Speed Beats Bruni to Pole

Speed beat Bruni to the top spot eight minutes remaining in a session, which ended with the top ten drivers covered by just one second and the top twenty within two seconds of pole.

The American took an early lead in the session on his first lap, with a time almost a second slower than his pole; Bruni again followed just behind, with the pair swapping fastest laps throughout the thirty minute period.

Jose Maria Lopez was third overall with a time of 1:26.143, two tenths behind Bruni, but the teammates of both drivers were substantially less lucky - Fairuz Fauzy spun off at turn one on his first hot lap, while Mathias Lauda lost his car under braking at the third turn with five minutes to go.

The two corners claimed the only other drivers to stop on track - Alexandre Premat at turn one and Clivio Piccione spun slowly through the gravel, stopping gently against the wall at turn three halfway into the session.

Nelson Piquet put his troubled weekend in Imola behind him with a strong run to fourth, despite the intervention of a marshall who inadvertently hit his clutch button while pushing the car in the pitlane, briefly stopping Piquet from finding a gear.

However the Brazilian was not the most disappointed man on track - his near neighbour Ernesto Viso was confident of taking pole, only to struggle with the handling of his car in the early stages of qualifying. His BCN team ate up valuable time towards the end of the session adding a skirt to the bottom of his car, leaving him time for only one hot lap.

The Formula One style run ended in heartache for the Venezuelan when he spun at turn three as the clock ran out, killing off his chances of taking the top spot and leaving Speed at the front of the grid for tomorrow's first race.

Pos  Driver      Team                      Time             Laps
 1.  Speed       iSport International      1:25.486          10
 2.  Bruni       Coloni Motorsport         1:25.934 + 0.448   7
 3.  Lopez       DAMS                      1:26.143 + 0.657  14
 4.  Piquet Jr.  Hitech Piquet Sports      1:26.189 + 0.703  12
 5.  Pla         DPR                       1:26.209 + 0.723  13
 6.  Alvarez     Campos Racing             1:26.241 + 0.755   8
 7.  Sharp       DPR                       1:26.298 + 0.812  12
 8.  Lapierre    Arden International       1:26.422 + 0.936  13
 9.  Garcia      Racing Engineering        1:26.464 + 0.978  11
10.  Rosberg     ART Grand Prix            1:26.465 + 0.979  15
11.  Kovalainen  Arden International       1:26.512 + 1.026  13
12.  Carroll     Super Nova International  1:26.717 + 1.231  13
13.  Jani        Racing Engineering        1:26.766 + 1.280  14
14.  Premat      ART Grand Prix            1:26.822 + 1.336  13
15.  Piccione    Durango                   1:26.834 + 1.348   7
16.  Yoshimoto   BCN Competicion           1:26.849 + 1.363  13
17.  Pantano     Super Nova International  1:26.987 + 1.501   7
18.  Monfardini  Durango                   1:27.092 + 1.606  15
19.  Hernandez   Campos Racing             1:27.094 + 1.608  12
20.  Viso        BCN Competicion           1:27.367 + 1.881  11
21.  Lauda       Coloni Motorsport         1:27.627 + 2.141   9
22.  Negrao      Hitech Piquet Sports      1:27.752 + 2.266  14
23.  Artam       iSport International      1:28.806 + 3.320  13

Did Not Qualify:

Fauzy, DAMS