Liuzzi takes pole on his A1GP debut

Liuzzi used his power boost to great effect to storm to the top of the times in sprint race qualifying, denying weekend pace-setter Robert Doornbos (Team Netherlands) his first A1 pole in the process. But the Dutchman fought back impressively to claim the top spot for the feature race.

Championship leader Team Switzerland endured a tough session. Driver Neel Jani failed to set a time in sprint race qualifying after a red flag caused him to run out of time in the opening segment, while a technical problem stopped the his car on track in the second. He will start the sprint from 20th and last.

But Jani recovered brilliantly, despite missing the first feature race segment, to charge into third on the grid for tomorrow's second race with his only flying lap.

Title challenger Team Ireland will line up third for the sprint and second in the feature with Adam Carroll, while Team Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque starts fifth and seventh at home.

Team Lebanon's Daniel Morad used his power boost in sprint race qualifying to take a great fourth, while Adrian Zaugg handed South Africa its best qualifying performance of the season with fourth in feature race qualifying.

Great Britain's Dan Clarke will start 13th in the sprint and 16th in the feature.

Sprint race grid:

Pos  Driver              Team           Time            Gap
 1.  Vitantonio Liuzzi   Italy          1m30.875s
 2.  Robert Doornbos     Netherlands    1m31.346s  + 0.471s
 3.  Adam Carroll        Ireland        1m31.600s  + 0.725s
 4.  Daniel Morad        Lebanon        1m31.756s  + 0.881s
 5.  Filipe Albuquerque  Portugal       1m31.777s  + 0.902s
 6.  Earl Bamber         New Zealand    1m32.006s  + 1.131s
 7.  Andre Lotterer      Germany        1m32.084s  + 1.209s
 8.  Adrian Zaugg        South Africa   1m32.301s  + 1.426s
 9.  Narain Karthikeyan  India          1m32.358s  + 1.483s
10.  Clivio Piccione     Monaco         1m32.420s  + 1.545s
11.  Fairuz Fauzy        Malaysia       1m32.929s  + 2.054s
12.  Marco Andretti      USA            1m33.214s  + 2.339s
13.  Dan Clarke          Great Britain  1m33.860s  + 2.985s
14.  Felipe Guimaraes    Brazil         1m33.985s  + 3.110s
15.  Zahir Ali           Indonesia      1m34.005s  + 3.130s
16.  Salvador Duran      Mexico         1m34.216s  + 3.341s
17.  John Martin         Australia      1m34.405s  + 3.530s
18.  Nicolas Prost       France         1m36.567s  + 5.692s
19.  Ho-Pin Tung         China          1m36.838s  + 5.963s
20.  Neel Jani           Switzerland    -

Feature race grid:

Pos  Driver              Team           Time            Gap
 1.  Robert Doornbos     Netherlands    1m30.415s
 2.  Adam Carroll        Ireland        1m30.696s  + 0.281s
 3.  Neel Jani           Switzerland    1m30.878s  + 0.463s
 4.  Adrian Zaugg        South Africa   1m30.984s  + 0.569s
 5.  Felipe Guimaraes    Brazil         1m31.023s  + 0.608s
 6.  Fairuz Fauzy        Malaysia       1m31.025s  + 0.610s
 7.  Filipe Albuquerque  Portugal       1m31.095s  + 0.680s
 8.  Marco Andretti      USA            1m31.459s  + 1.044s
 9.  Clivio Piccione     Monaco         1m31.495s  + 1.080s
10.  Vitantonio Liuzzi   Italy          1m31.852s  + 1.437s
11.  Earl Bamber         New Zealand    1m31.925s  + 1.510s
12.  John Martin         Australia      1m31.939s  + 1.524s
13.  Salvador Duran      Mexico         1m32.031s  + 1.616s
14.  Andre Lotterer      Germany        1m32.269s  + 1.854s
15.  Daniel Morad        Lebanon        1m32.352s  + 1.937s
16.  Dan Clarke          Great Britain  1m32.400s  + 1.985s
17.  Narain Karthikeyan  India          1m32.504s  + 2.089s
18.  Zahir Ali           Indonesia      1m32.573s  + 2.158s
19.  Nicolas Prost       France         1m32.941s  + 2.526s
20.  Ho-Pin Tung         China          1m33.237s  + 2.822s