Filippi grabs Bahrain pole

Underrated Italian driver Luca Filippi stunned the GP2 field by grabbing his first career pole-position ahead of Saturday's season-opener in Bahrain. The 21-year old Super Nova racer clocked a time of 1:40.873 to be marginally quicker than series veteran Alexandre Negrão (Minardi Piquet Sports) of Brazil.

"I'm in a new team and I had to show them my value," former Italian F3000 champion Filippi explained. "We've been working a lot, training and pushing hard in the winter tests. This was the first goal, and I wanted to do it because it makes everyone more confident".

Andreas Zuber, driving for iSport International, had the fastest time in the closing moments of the 30-minute qualifying session, prior to Filippi's record breaking time, followed by Xandi Negrão's charge. The Austrian will line up third on the grid, alongside Lucas Di Grassi (ART Grand Prix), with his fellow Brazilian Bruno Senna (Arden International) further back in a creditable fifth place at his GP2 debut.

Pre-season title favorite Michael Ammermüller of Germany couldn't manage better than 15th on the grid. But with top 16 qualifiers within a second of the pole-position time, the pack is well balanced and a close main race is expected.