Filippi on pole

The 22-year-old Italian had been a constant threat during the session but had fallen to fifth place in his Super Nova machine as the end of the session loomed.

He managed to pull a great lap out of the bag though just when it counted to grab his first pole since the season-opener in Bahrain in 1:34.278.

The man he knocked off the top spot was championship leader Timo Glock, this year's qualifying king so far. He and iSport team-mate Andreas Zuber completed the top three with Giorgio Pantano recovering from a turn one spin to qualify fourth.

Britain's Adam Carroll did enough to claim fifth on the grid for FMS ahead of Lucas di Grassi's ART machine and Xandi Negrao's Minardi-Piquet machine.

Kazuki Nakajima messed up his final effort and had to be content with eighth in his DAMS machine. Sebastian Buemi and Borja Garcia completed the top ten for ART and Durango.

Brit Mike Conway will start 12th for Super Nova while debutants Ricardo Riatti and Henry Karjalainen ended up 22nd and 25th.