Yoong on pole for season finale

Although British driver Darren Manning scored the fastest single laptime in the qualifying session, Yoong popped up at the death of the final of the four 15-minute segments to improve his aggregate time to just over two tenths of a second quicker than the former IRL racer.

Manning had held the provisional pole after each of the first three segments, and it had looked unlikely that Yoong would jump up from fourth to make up the six tenths of a second deficit he had to Manning on his final run.

However, the former Minardi racer achieved his aim by the time he had taken the chequered flag, to take Team Malaysia's first pole position in A1 GP.

Yoong is the only driver in the field that had prior track knowledge of the Shanghai circuit, having raced in the Chinese Grand Prix's supporting Porsche race in 2004.

The pole position was Yoong's first of any kind for nearly ten years, his last being in a Formula Renault race at Donington Park, England in 1997.

"It is incredible," Yoong said after stepping out of his bright yellow car. "I can't begin to describe how big a deal this is to this team. Now I just have to do my best to win both races tomorrow."

Manning admitted to making a mistake on his final run, and thought the difference between the pair could have been less.

"I really hate this style of qualifying now, because I thought I had pole!" Manning joked. "Going onto the final corner before the long back straight I made a small mistake, and I paid for it all the way down the straight.

"That is a long straight to make a mistake on just before hand. I'm not saying I would have beaten Alex, but I would have been closer."

It is however the 30-year-old's first front row start since 2001, when he drove in F3000 for Arden International.

Alexandre Premat finished third for newly-crowned champions, Team France, having been at a track time disadvantage compared with the rest of the pack. Premat had only completed 20 minutes of slick tyre running this weekend, due to giving the car to teammate Nicolas Lapierre for both of yesterday's free practice sessions.

Premat will start tomorrow's Sprint race, before giving the car back to Lapierre back for the longer Feature race.

Double Laguna Seca winner Salvador Duran continued his impressive A1 form by qualifying fourth for Mexico.

Ananda Mikola topped free practice this morning and carried his pace through to qualifying to take Team Indonesia's best grid slot of the season. His previous best had been ninth at Estoril last October.

Michael Devaney, in only his third meeting for Ireland, qualified a strong sixth.

There was trouble in the session for other fancied runners however, with the twisty first turn catching several drivers out. Australia's Ryan Briscoe, New Zealand's Matt Halliday and Team USA's Phil Giebler all lost one of their runs after running wide at the turn and spinning off.