Jani takes storm-affected pole

Heavy black clouds hung ominously over the Sepang circuit as the qualifying session got under way, but the first 15-minute segment ran in dry conditions. Jani set this pace in this, lapping the Grand Prix venue in 1m54.441s in his DAMS-run machine.

Fellow DAMS runner Alexandre Premat continued Team France's strong run with second quickest, while Enrico Toccacelo gave Team Italy its best showing to date with an excellent third.

Despite the conditions Team Holland opted not to put a fresh set of tyres on Jos Verstappen's car and the morning pace setter was back in 18th. Jan Lammers' team would come to rue this decision when the rain clouds gathered overhead just as the second segment was about to kick off.

There was frantic activity in the pitlane as the drivers scrambled to get out in track, but it was in vain as the rain started to fall before any of them completed a flying lap. This didn't thwart Jani though. Despite the track being wet on the back straight and final corner, he lapped just a tenth slower than he had in the first sector to take pole.

"I was quite amazed to be only a tenth slower," he said. "I was slipping and sliding around so much, but this is a great result."

Team France didn't join the rush to get out at the start of the session, but Premat did an excellent job to record the fourth quickest time and hold onto second. Ralph Firman was third quickest and vaulted into second, while Robbie Kerr was the next fastest after Jani and put the Team Great Britain car into fourth. Verstappen, who was the first man on track leapt up to a more representative sixth.

Team Italy lost out big time, with Toccacelo dropping to 10th, but Team Lebanon and Team Australia were the biggest losers with Khalil Beschir and Will Davison spinning after being caught out by the rain.

In front of his home crowd Alex Yoong gave Team Malaysia its best starting position so far in seventh.