Vallelunga Superstars: Giovanni Berton claims last-gasp pole

Just when the session looked to belong to practice pace-setter Gianni Morbidelli, Berton came from nowhere to record a stunning 1m41.082 flyer just seconds before the session was over.

It was his first career pole postion, and the Dinamic BMW team's first of the season.

Morbidelli, who had spent more than half of the session on top, was forced to settle for second despite also improving on his final run.

He wound up just over two-tenths shy of Berton, but more than four-tenths clear of Max Mugelli - who made it two Dinamic BMWs in the top three with third, having led the way for the first 10 minutes of the session.

Morbidelli's closest title contender Thomas Biagi wound up fourth, 0.556s off pole, but crucially ahead of his Romeo Ferraris Mercedes team-mate Tonio Liuzzi, who could manage just fifth.

The two Solaris Chevrolets were next, Francesco Sini outqualifying Domenico Schiattarella.

Giuseppe Cipriani meanwhile finished the session ninth despite his Roma Racing Mercedes suffering a spectacular engine failure three minutes from the end of the session.

Cipriani wasn't the only driver to have problems: Andrea Bacci brought out an early red flag when he spun at the hairpin five minutes in, with the CAAL Racing Mercedes driver taking no further part in the session.

Pos Driver                  Car                Time       Gap     Laps
 1. Giovanni Berton         Dinamic BMW        1m41.082s            10
 2. Gianni Morbidelli       Audi Italia        1m41.300s   +0.218s   6
 3. Max Mugelli             Dinamic BMW        1m41.592s   +0.510s  11
 4. Thomas Biagi            Ferraris Mercedes  1m41.638s   +0.556s   7
 5. Tonio Liuzzi            Ferraris Mercedes  1m41.795s   +0.713s   9
 6. Andrea Larini           Audi Italia        1m41.809s   +0.727s  11
 7. Francesco Sini          Solaris Chevrolet  1m42.708s   +1.626s  10
 8. Domenico Schiatarella   Solaris Chevrolet  1m43.183s   +2.101s  11
 9. Giuseppe Cipriani       Audi Italia        1m43.598s   +2.516s  11
10. Mauro Trentin           Dinamic BMW        1m43.856s   +2.774s  10
11. Francesco Ascani        Todi BMW           1m44.580s   +3.498s  12
12. Leonardo Baccarelli     CAAL Mercedes      1m45.230s   +4.148s  12
13. Gianni Giudici          Giudici BMW        1m46.537s   +5.455s   9
14. Mario Buscemi           Todi BMW           1m54.223s  +13.141s   6
15. Andrea Bacci            CAAL Mercedes      -