Surprise pole for Filippi in Bahrain
Super Nova's Luca Filippi beat the more fancied GP2 runners to claim pole position for the season opener in Bahrain
The Italian timed his new tyre run in the middle of the 30-minute session to perfection to score his first pole in the series.
A superb late effort from series veteran Xandi Negrao took the Brazilian on to the front row for the first time in his GP2 career.
"It was a good lap, and after that we just waited to see if anyone could beat it," said Filippi.
"We made a change to the car after that, which was not so good, so I think we can have an even better car for the race."
Negrao's late lap knocked iSport's Andreas Zuber, who had been on pole prior to Filippi's run, back to third. Lucas di Grassi was fourth for reigning champs ART.
Bruno Senna did an excellent job to claim fifth for Arden. He will line up alongside another impressive rookie, Trident's Kohei Hirate.
Preseason favourite Timo Glock was a disappointing seventh, just ahead of series returnee Borja Garcia for Durango.
Mike Conway was 10th for Super Nova, ahead of Antonio Pizzonia - 12th after two off-track moments; and Giorgio Pantano in 13th.
Michael Ammermuller will start tomorrow's race from 15th in the second ART car.
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Luca Filippi Super Nova International 1:40.873 2. Alexandre Negrao Minardi Piquet Sports 1:40.958 + 0.085 3. Andreas Zuber iSport International 1:41.034 + 0.161 4. Lucas Di Grassi ART Grand Prix 1:41.052 + 0.179 5. Bruno Senna Arden International 1:41.203 + 0.330 6. Kohei Hirate Trident Racing 1:41.213 + 0.340 7. Timo Glock iSport International 1:41.225 + 0.352 8. Borja Garcia Durango 1:41.252 + 0.379 9. Kazuki Nakajima DAMS 1:41.306 + 0.433 10. Mike Conway Super Nova International 1:41.332 + 0.459 11. Nicolas Lapierre DAMS 1:41.458 + 0.585 12. Antonio Pizzonia FMS International 1:41.544 + 0.671 13. Giorgio Pantano Campos Grand Prix 1:41.549 + 0.676 14. Adrian Zaugg Arden International 1:41.715 + 0.842 15. M.Ammermuller ART Grand Prix 1:41.746 + 0.873 16. Karun Chandhok Durango 1:41.810 + 0.937 17. Roldan Rodriguez Minardi Piquet Sports 1:41.951 + 1.078 18. Sakon Yamamoto BCN Competicion 1:42.139 + 1.266 19. Pastor Maldonado Trident Racing 1:42.189 + 1.316 20. Jason Tahinci FMS International 1:42.234 + 1.361 21. Javier Villa Racing Engineering 1:42.255 + 1.382 22. Sergio Jimenez Racing Engineering 1:42.492 + 1.619 23. Vitaly Petrov Campos Grand Prix 1:42.561 + 1.688 24. Ho-Pin Tung BCN Competicion 1:43.001 + 2.128 25. Andy Soucek DPR 1:43.257 + 2.384 26. C.Bakkerud DPR 1:43.333 + 2.460
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