Maiden pole for Monaco

A1 Team Monaco have scored their first ever pole position for Sunday's Feature Race at Kyalami in South Africa.

Brazil crash brings halt to final qualifying session

A1 Team Monaco have scored their first ever pole position for Sunday's Feature Race at Kyalami in South Africa. The Principality, which only entered the 'World Cup of Motorsport' this season, made its breakthrough thanks to driver Clivio Piccione lapping the 2.65-mile track in a time of one minute 27.269 seconds. However, the team can also owe their success to the misfortune suffered by rivals Brazil, whose driver Felipe Guimaraes spun out of the second session, bringing it to a premature halt. A rear wheel and the rear wing was ripped off Guimaraes' car after it slammed into a tyre wall, although the driver climbed out of the cockpit uninjured. Only five drivers had set a time by at that stage, the shunt therefore mixing up the grid somewhat. Starting alongside Piccione will be Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy, with an all-Antipodean second row seeing New Zealand's Earl Bamber starting ahead of Australia's John Martin. The latter was the quickest driver in session one, Martin making the most of his car's PowerBoost button which provides an extra 60 bhp.

Playing the joker

A1GP's PowerBoost 'joker' has been reinstated for Saturday qualifying this weekend - teams being allowed to use it for one of their four flying laps. The 2008/09 season's main protagonists so far - Switzerland, Ireland and Portugal - line up fifth, sixth and seventh respectively, with Guimaraes set to start eighth assuming Brazil's mechanics repair his car. The Netherlands' Jeroen Bleekemolen will start ninth in the Feature Race, with Great Britain's Danny Watts rounding out the top 10. Bleekemolen earlier made use of his PowerBoost to take pole position for the Sprint Race with a lap of 1:27.717s. The Dutchman qualified 0.355s ahead of Portugal's Filipe Albuquerque, with reigning champions Neel Jani and Switzerland starting third. Series leader Adam Carroll will also start sixth in the Sprint Race, with Watts qualifying 13th. Qualifying proved disappointing for Lebanon, who had topped the timesheets during Friday practice. Daniel Morad's car developed a misfire, meaning he could only qualify 18th for the Sprint and will start the Feature Race last after failing to set a time. Feature Race qualifying result: 1 MONACO Clivio PICCIONE 01:27.269
2 MALAYSIA Fairuz FAUZY 01:27.405
3 NEW ZEALAND Earl BAMBER 01:27.569
4 AUSTRALIA John MARTIN 01:28.439
5 SWITZERLAND Neel JANI 01:28.521
6 IRELAND Adam CARROLL 01:28.593
7 PORTUGAL Filipe ALBUQUERQUE 01:28.773
8 BRAZIL Felipe GUIMARAES 01:28.878
9 NETHERLANDS Jeroen BLEEKEMOLEN 01:28.926
10 GREAT BRITAIN Danny WATTS 01:29.092
11 FRANCE Nicolas PROST 01:29.155
12 CHINA Ho Pin TUNG 01:29.158
13 MEXICO Salvador DURAN 01:29.343
14 USA Marco ANDRETTI 01:29.487
15 GERMANY Michael AMMERMULLER 01:29.565
16 SOUTH AFRICA Adrian ZAUGG 01:29.884
17 ITALY Edoardo PISCOPO 01:30.063
18 INDIA Narain KARTHIKEYAN 01:30.505
19 INDONESIA Zahir ALI
20 LEBANON Daniel MORAD Sprint Race qualifying result: 1 NETHERLANDS Jeroen BLEEKEMOLEN 01:27.717
2 PORTUGAL Filipe ALBUQUERQUE 01:28.072
3 SWITZERLAND Neel JANI 01:28.153
4 MONACO Clivio PICCIONE 01:28.417
5 INDIA Narain KARTHIKEYAN 01:28.431
6 IRELAND Adam CARROLL 01:28.437
7 FRANCE Nicolas PROST 01:28.531
8 SOUTH AFRICA Adrian ZAUGG 01:28.890
9 MALAYSIA Fairuz FAUZY 01:28.904
10 ITALY Edoardo PISCOPO 01:29.253
11 GERMANY Michael AMMERMULLER 01:29.337
12 NEW ZEALAND Earl BAMBER 01:29.364
13 GREAT BRITAIN Danny WATTS 01:29.567
14 BRAZIL Felipe GUIMARAES 01:29.726
15 CHINA Ho Pin TUNG 01:29.758
16 MEXICO Salvador DURAN 01:29.884
17 USA Marco ANDRETTI 01:29.916
18 LEBANON Daniel MORAD 01:30.136
19 AUSTRALIA John MARTIN 01:30.414
20 INDONESIA Zahir ALI