Gommendy takes pole for France

In the head-to-head shoot-out final, Gommendy was first across the line on a 1m26.313s, but Bamber could only manage a 1m26.745s, which was 0.432 seconds slower. Bamber was actually a tenth up at first sector, but Gommendy was quicker at the second split by 0.2s and rammed home his advantage in the final sector.

"That was amazing," said an emotional Gommendy. "I haven't driven for seven months. The deal was done two days ago. A big, big thank you to Wim [Coekelbergs, his Azerti team owner] to put me in the car. It was a big risk for him. I'm not surprised to be on pole, but the circumstances make it special."

Bamber said: "It was really entertaining, and I've never made the super final before. The car wasn't looking too flash 10 days ago, but the guys have made it beautiful now. To start from the front row is awesome."

In the semi-final stage, Gommendy beat Antonio Pizzonia (Brazil) by 1.135s. Bamber defeated local hero Robert Doornbos (Netherlands) by the much narrower margin of 0.123s.

In the quarter-finals, Pizzonia beat Yelmer Buurman (Netherlands/PSV), who was fastest in the second group session, after the Dutchman locked up and ran wide at Turn 2. Gommendy defeated Frederic Vervisch (Luxembourg) by well over a second after the Belgian suffered a big understeer moment. Bamber bettered Andy Soucek (Turkey/Galatasaray) by half a second.

Doornbos beat Jani (Belgium/Anderlecht), who topped Group A, by almost a quarter of a second. "I lost too much grip on used tyres, but it was my first shootout, so I need to learn from this," said Jani.

The big news of the group sessions was the failure of both pre-event favourites Craig Dolby (England) and John Martin (Australia) to progress to the knock-out rounds. They will start ninth and 10th respectively on Sunday.

Pos  Driver             Team                 Time       Gap/Session
 1.  Tristan Gommendy   France/Bordeaux      1m26.313s
 2.  Earl Bamber        New Zealand          1m26.745s  + 0.432
 3.  Robert Doornbos    Netherlands          1m26.831s  (Semi 2)
 4.  Antonio Pizzonia   Brazil               1m27.616s  (Semi 1)
 5.  Frederic Vervisch  Luxembourg           1m28.097s  (Quarter 2)
 6.  Andy Soucek        Turkey/Galatasaray   1m27.285s  (Quarter 3)
 7.  Neel Jani          Belgium/Anderlecht   1m26.934s  (Quarter 4)
 8.  Yelmer Buurman     Netherlands/PSV      1m29.359s  (Quarter 1)
 9.  Craig Dolby        England              1m26.709s  (Group B)
10.  John Martin        Australia            1m27.315s  (Group A)
11.  Ho-Pin Tung        China                1m29.162s  (Group B)
12.  Filip Salaquarda   Czech/Sparta Prague  1m27.463s  (Group A)
13.  Maria de Villota   Spain/Madrid                    (Group B)
14.  Duncan Tappy       Japan                1m27.743s  (Group A)