Grosjean takes dominant Bahrain pole

The Frenchman went quickest in practice earlier in the day and continued his fine form, setting a qualifying lap more than half a second faster than anyone else.

"This is my third pole position but this one tastes a little different as my leading rivals knew the circuit and I didn't," he said.

"Last time in Malaysia I was in pole position and things went wrong, but I'm over that and tomorrow will be a different day."

iSport International team-mates Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna will line up second and third on the grid, while Adrian Valles continued his good form for Fisichella Motor Sport in fourth place.

Luca Filippi, who won the GP2 feature race at Bahrain last year qualified only 12th, despite setting the fourth quickest time in practice this morning.

"My car was slower than in the morning because we didn't have the balance right," he said. "But in the race anything can happen if we have a good pace."

Pos  Driver           Team                         Time             Laps
 1.  Grosjean         ART Grand Prix               1:42.661           15
 2.  Chandhok         iSport International         1:43.231  +0.570   12
 3.  Senna            iSport International         1:43.238  +0.577   14
 4.  Valles           FMS International            1:43.239  +0.578   11
 5.  Kobayashi        Dams                         1:43.277  +0.616   15
 6.  Fauzy            Super Nova Racing            1:43.489  +0.828   15
 7.  D'Ambrosio       Dams                         1:43.670  +1.009   15
 8.  Buemi            Trust Team Arden             1:43.698  +1.037   14
 9.  Nunes            DPR                          1:43.798  +1.137   12
10.  Bonanomi         Piquet Sports                1:43.800  +1.139   13
11.  Valsecchi        Durango                      1:43.906  +1.245   12
12.  Filippi          Qi-Meritus Mahara            1:43.982  +1.321   12
13.  Buurman          Trust Team Arden             1:44.006  +1.345   13
14.  Hanley           Barwa International Campos   1:44.085  +1.424   11
15.  Petrov           Barwa International Campos   1:44.087  +1.426   11
16.  Schleghelmilch   Trident Racing               1:44.187  +1.526   14
17.  Herck            FMS International            1:44.260  +1.599   13
18.  Yoshimoto        Qi-Meritus Mahara            1:44.334  +1.673   11
19.  Bakkerud         Super Nova Racing            1:44.347  +1.686   12
20.  Tung             Trident Racing               1:44.407  +1.746   12
21.  Valerio          Durango                      1:44.439  +1.778   12
22.  Puglisi          Piquet Sports                1:44.542  +1.881   14
23.  Pavlovic         BCN Competicion              1:44.659  +1.998   13
24.  Tahinci          BCN Competicion              1:44.732  +2.071   13
25.  Ebrahim          DPR                          1:44.845  +2.184   12
26.  Jelley           ART Grand Prix               1:44.863  +2.202   12