Pizzonia puts Corinthians on pole

Pizzonia drove closer than usual to the rear of Guerrieri's car, and his tactic of chasing from close quarters seemed to pay off. He was 0.115s up at sector one, which dropped to 0.023s by sector two, but his advantage at the finish line had extended to 0.180s to defeat his Argentinian rival.

In the semis, Pizzonia beat Donington Park victor Max Wissel (FC Basel) by almost half a second, while Guerrieri won the second encounter, outpacing Liverpool's series leader Adrian Valles by the best part of nine tenths of a second.

In the quarter finals, Wissel vanquished earlier Group B pacesetter Alvaro Parente (Porto) with an impressive 1m28.800s, faster than the Spa GP2 race winner by three-tenths. Guerrieri convincingly defeated last year's pole man here, Roma's Franck Perera, by half a second.

Valles beat practice pacesetter Yelmer Buurman (Anderlecht) by almost four tenths, while Pizzonia set a stellar 1m28.390s to see off John Martin of Rangers, who was a full 1.3s slower than the Brazilian, who claimed the fastest time at this stage.

In the group sessions, Guerrieri had topped Group A with a lap of 1m29.191s, closely followed by Martin (+ 0.008s) and Valles (+ 0.022s). Wissel was fourth fastest, almost two tenths shy.

Debutante Maria de Villota qualified last after suffering a spin at Turn 1. Also not making it through to the knock-outs were Nelson Panciatici (Lyon), Pedro Petiz (Sporting Lisbon), Carlo Van Dam (PSV) and Ho Pin Tung (Galatasaray).

In the apparently much stronger Group B, Parente set the pace with a stunning 1m28.235s, 0.184s faster than Buurman. Pizzonia was third quickest, ahead of Perera. AC Milan's Giorgio Pantano missed out by 0.153s, but would start ahead of Kasper Andersen (FC Midtyjlland), Craig Dolby (Tottenham), Sebastien Bourdais (Sevilla) and Enrique Bernoldi (Flamengo).

Such was the discrepancy in speed between the two groups, Guerrieri's fastest time from the first session would only have put him ninth in the second - and was slower than Bourdais. Wildly changing track conditions were cited as the reason for this.

Pos Driver                Team                               Time
 1. Antonio Pizzonia      Corinthians                   1m28.447s
 2. Esteban Guerrieri     Olympiacos                    1m28.627s
 3. Adrian Valles         Liverpool                     1m29.334s
 4. Max Wissel            FC Basel                      1m29.553s
 5. Alvaro Parente        FC Porto                      1m29.159s
 6. Yelmer Buurman        Anderlecht                    1m29.548s
 7. Franck Perera         AS Roma                       1m29.601s
 8. John Martin           Glasgow Rangers               1m29.762s
 9. Giorgio Pantano       AC Milan                      1m28.710s
10. Kasper Andersen       FC Midtylland                 1m28.845s
11. Craig Dolby           Tottenham Hotspur             1m28.960s
12. Sebastien Bourdais    Sevilla FC                    1m29.005s
13. Enrique Bernoldi      Flamengo                      1m29.686s
14. Nelson Panciatici     Olympique Lyonnais            1m29.670s
15. Pedro Petiz           Sporting Clube de Portugal    1m29.962s
16. Carlo van Dam         PSV Eindhoven                 1m30.715s
17. Ho-Pin Tung           Galatasaray                   1m31.676s
18. Maria de Villota      Atletico Madrid               1m32.457s