Jean-Eric Vergne picked up the points to claim his third pole of the season on a 1:09.4. He now has more poles than anyone else and will be joined by Nelson Piquet Jr. on the front row with the other championship challengers on the row behind.
Group 1
Nelson Piquet Jr., Sebastien Buemi, Jaime Alguersuari, Justin Wilson, Nick Heidfeld
The session started with Buemi first on track infront of Alguersuari. With Buemi beating his own record on his first lap as he is followed closey by Piquet. On his second run, Piquet manages to improve with a 1:09.4. Buemi goes to respond but a few mistakes on his full power lap sees him unable to improve. Behind the top 2, Heidfeld beats Wilson and Alguersuari, who struggled and was accused of holding up Buemi.
Group 2
Antonio Felix Da Costa, Nico Prost, Sam Bird, Jerome d’Ambrosio, Daniel Abt
Having taken two poles this year, Prost was an early favourite, but a tank-slapper ruins his chance of pole on the opening lap, while d’Ambrosio went third straight off. Despite early problems Bird managed fifth on his second lap. But Prost and Abt pushed the British driver down the order.
D’Ambrosio couldn’t improve on his provisional third with Prost fourth, Abt fifth and Bird seventh. However; another poor qualifying for da Costa sees him manage ninth.
Group 3
Jean-Eric Vergne, Antonio Garcia, Loic Duval, Lucas di Grassi, Jarno Trulli
All the drivers headed straight out as di Grassi was the first on a 200KW lap going second after an outstanding final sector. Not wanting to be beat, Vergne went fastest on his first lap. Meanwhile, Garcia and Duval struggled to set a quick lap.
On their second run, Vergne and di Grassi failed to improve with Trulli managing ninth. Garcia was 1.1 seconds off Vergne and only managed twelth while Duval’s final run came to an abrupt end after the car shut off in the final corner, meaning he stayed at the back.
Group 4
Vitantonio Liuzzi, Karun Chandhok, Stephane Sarrazin, Bruno Senna, Loic Duran
The Mahindra Racing drivers were first out as they looked to make progress. Senna was impressive in practice and will want to improve on his position. Despite this, he only managed fifteenth on his first run with Duran managing fourteenth. Sarrazin managed to go tenth as Chandhok spun the car.
Senna ran wide in the final sector only managing sixteenth. The best of the group was Sarrazin and Duran managing tenth and eleventh.
After qualifying, pole sitter Vergne commented, saying; “It’s good, I’m really happy. I think it’s good for the team, but now everything has to be done in the race.” Alongside him is Piquet ahead of di Grassi, Buemi, d’Ambrosio, Prost, Abt and Heidfeld.