Reid earns pole for New Zealand

Reid set a time of 1:45.040 to give himself an aggregate time of 3:30.053 over the four sessions to seal pole position ahead of Team Germany's 19-year-old Nico Hulkenberg.

The NZ car had held top spot after the third of the four qualifying sessions, only for Hulkenberg to put in a lap of 1:45.025 to take the position with a couple of minutes remaining in the second session despite a slight lock-up during the lap.

However, Reid was up to the task and lapped 0.013 seconds faster to take pole by almost half a second on aggregate despite the David Sears Motorsport team having to change a wishbone which was discovered to be carrying damage from last week's Zandvoort season opener.

"It was tough," said Reid. "The final session was all very intense because we were waiting.

"Then Germany went out and set the pace so we had to go back out. I knew that if I got within three-tenths of my best lap it was comfortable. I made one small mistake - without that maybe we could have crashed the 44s."

Hulkenberg, whose Team Germany entry is also run by Sears, admitted that he should have pushed harder in the first three sessions.

"It was up to me," he said. "In sessions one, two and three I wasn't pushing hard enough. Then in the fourth I managed the same time as Jonny."

Ex-Minardi Formula One driver Alex Yoong bagged a superb third on the grid despite admitting to "struggling yesterday" after strong laps in the final two sessions, while former British Formula Three champion Robbie Kerr ended up fourth on the grid after also holding back his best rubber for the final sessions.

"I'm a little bit disappointed," said Kerr. "We should be higer up the grid, but obviousy the loss of track time during practice yesterday hurt us.

"We knew that New Zealand and Germany would be strong because both Nico and Jonny have experience of the circuit. Obviously you're not happy unless you are on pole, but we know we have a good set-up for the race and good pace on old tyres."

Formula Renault UK racer Cheng Congfu claimed fifth on the grid, China's best qualifying position in A1 GP, with Team Canada's James Hinchcliffe another to dip into the 1:45 bracket in the final session to leap to sixth after replacing Sean McIntosh in the car.

Home hero Tomas Enge could manage only eighth on the grid behind Team USA's Phil Giebler, although that was one place better than defending champion Team France's Nicolas Lapierre.

The French GP2 ace made a mistake during the cruical third qualifying segment in Turn 11, the resulting slide costing him crucial momentum. However, he was unable to break the 1:46 barrier, and would not have challenged the front row even without the error.

South Africa, which won the opening race of the 2006/7 season at Zandvoort with Adrian Zaugg, will start only 14th with sometime Champ Car Atlantic driver Stephen Simpson on driving duty.

Team Ireland's Michael Devaney will line up a disappointing 18th after struggling for pace throughout the weekend.

Combined qualifying results (starting grid):

Pos  Team            Driver            Time
 1.  New Zealand     Jonny Reid        3:30.053
 2.  Germany         N.Hulkenberg      3:30.524 +  0.471
 3.  Malaysia        Alex Yoong        3:31.051 +  0.998
 4.  Great Britain   Robbie Kerr       3:31.400 +  1.347
 5.  China           Cheng Congfu      3:31.531 +  1.478
 6.  Canada          J.Hinchcliffe     3:31.673 +  1.620
 7.  USA             Phil Giebler      3:31.743 +  1.690
 8.  Czech Republic  Tomas Enge        3:32.016 +  1.963
 9.  France          Nicolas Lapierre  3:32.227 +  2.174
10.  Switzerland     Sebastien Buemi   3:32.774 +  2.721
11.  Mexico          Salvador Duran    3:32.943 +  2.890
12.  Netherlands     J.Bleekemolen     3:32.976 +  2.923
13.  Lebanon         Graham Rahal      3:33.360 +  3.307
14.  South Africa    Stephen Simpson   3:33.676 +  3.623
15.  Brazil          Tuka Rocha        3:33.732 +  3.679
16.  Indonesia       Ananda Mikola     3:34.079 +  4.026
17.  Italy           A.P.Guidi         3:34.897 +  4.844
18.  Ireland         Michael Devaney   3:35.306 +  5.253
19.  India           Armaan Ebrahim    3:36.076 +  6.023
20.  Australia       Karl Reindler     3:37.495 +  7.442
21.  Greece          Takis Kaitatzis   3:38.020 +  7.967
22.  Singapore       Denis Lian        3:38.767 +  8.714
23.  Pakistan        Nur Ali           3:42.593 + 12.540