Jani takes pole at wet Sepang

Neel Jani has taken Switzerland's first pole position in A1 Grand Prix, in Malaysia.

Neel Jani has taken Switzerland's first pole position in A1 Grand Prix, after a weather-affected qualifying session for round five of the series in Malaysia.

The GP2 driver topped the aggregate timesheet after two of the four qualifying segments held at the 3.454-mile Sepang circuit, before heavy rain washed out the remainder of proceedings.

"It was very difficult on track today as there was rain on some corners and not on others," Jani said. "I thought I would have been able to go faster in the second session but there was drizzle in some parts of the track.

"It is very difficult to make a tyre choice in those conditions. It is very difficult to read the weather here and it could start to rain in the race, but we did get the chance to try a dry set-up in the damp conditions to see how the car reacts."

Jani will start Sunday's sprint race alongside Alexandre Premat, with the French driver in a strong position to boost his country's already formidable 19-point championship lead.

"In a way it is not too important if I am not on pole," Premat said. "To start on the front row is a good result, especially if the weather is wet as it was today and the visibility behind us will be difficult."

Ireland's Ralph Firman continued the good form he showed during practice to take third place on the grid, with Great Britain's Robbie Kerr - who, unlike Firman, has no previous experience of the track - showing consistent improvement to take fourth.

Nevertheless the Leicestershire driver claimed that, but for a minor error, he could have pipped Firman.

"Session one was quite good," Kerr reflected. "We went out fairly late on, I didn't get a clear lap because I had to overtake Australia just after turns seven and eight so that put me off the pace a bit.

"I got a good lap together apart from a slight mistake in the last sector that cost a couple of 10ths and maybe cost us a place on the grid so I'm a little disappointed about that.

"Fourth is a good place to start, we can do something from there. We've just got to wait and see what happens with the weather," he added.

New Zealand's Matt Halliday took fifth place on the grid, with Jos Verstappen dropping down to sixth for the Netherlands after going quickest in Friday practice.

Brazil's Nelson Piquet Jr., currently lying second in the championship, will start the race down in eighth place after being caught out by the wet conditions.

A1 Grand Prix of Nations rd 5, Sepang International, Sepang, Malaysia
Leading final positions after Qualifying:

1 Neel Jani (Switzerland) 3mins 48.962secs,
2 Alexandre Premat (France) 3:49.868,
3 Ralph Firman (Ireland) 3:49.969,
4 Robbie Kerr (Great Britain) 3:49.972,
5 Matt Halliday (New Zealand) 3:50.569,
6 Jos Verstappen (Netherlands) 3:51.036,
7 Alex Yoong (Malaysia) 3:51.199,
8 Nelson Piquet Jr. (Brazil) 3:51.398,
9 Alvaro Parente (Portugal) 3:51.547,
10 Enrico Toccacelo (Italy) 3:51.894,
11 Ananda Mikola (Indonesia) 3:51.996,
12 Bryan Herta (USA) 3:52.013,
13 Stephen Simpson (South Africa) 3:52.118,
14 Adam Khan (Pakistan) 3:52.200,
15 Armaan Ebrahim (India) 3:52.829,
16 Timo Scheider (Germany) 3:53.267,
17 Luis Diaz (Mexico) 3:53.656,
18 Tomas Enge (Czech Republic) 3:53.766,
19 Hayanari Schimoda (Japan) 3:53.948,
20 Mathias Lauda (Austria) 3:54.989,
21 Tengyi Jiang (China) 3:56.047,
22 Sean McIntosh (Canada) 4:00.397,
23 Khalil Beschir (Lebanon) 4:17.659,
24 Will Davison (Australia) 4:17.860