Herbert takes Bahrain Speedcar pole

The Briton edged out two fellow former grand prix winners Jean Alesi and Heinz-Harald Frentzen - the trio's best laps all covered by just 0.144s.

Alesi had held the top spot for the majority of the 45-minute session, but Herbert secured pole just three minutes from the end.

Frentzen too jumped ahead of Alesi and the Frenchman was unable to respond when he had to pull off the circuit with a mechanical problem during his final qualifying run.

Vitantonio Liuzzi and Gianni Morbidelli will line-up fourth and fifth for Saturday's first race, with Damien Pasini completing the top six.

Pos Driver                     Team                          Time
 1. Johnny Herbert             JMB                      2m07.095s
 2. Heinz-Harald Frentzen      Continental Circus         +0.053s
 3. Jean Alesi                 HPR                        +0.144s
 4. Vitantonio Liuzzi          UP Team                    +0.471s
 5. Gianni Morbidelli          Palm Racing                +0.643s
 6. Damien Pasini              JMB                        +1.214s
 7. Christopher Zoechling      Continental Circus         +1.369s
 8. David Terrien              West Tec                   +1.463s
 9. Hasher Al-Maktoum          UP Team                    +1.504s
10. Chris Buncombe             West Tec                   +1.527s
11. Marchy Lee                 HPR                        +1.595s
12. Tomas Biagi                Palm Racing                +1.838s
13. Nicolas Navarro            Durango                    +2.206s
14. Ramez Azzam                Scuderia Giudici           +3.154s
15. Massimo Cioci              Durango                    +4.444s
16. Gianni Giudici             Scuderia Giudici           +6.304s