Chandhok fastest, but Senna on pole

A cloudbust just before the session sent the teams into a frenzy of set-up changes in the pitlane, as it was evident the wet conditions would remain throughout the 30 minutes.

Chandhok left it until the very final seconds of qualifying to set the quickest time, his 2:15.489 just 0.061 quicker than his teammate Senna, who had led the way for much of the session.

But his 10-place grid penalty, incurred when he punted Vitaly Petrov into a spin in the Valencia sprint race, will drop the Indian down the order to 11th.

The destiny of the two points for pole position, however, caused some paddock debate. GP2 has ruled that Senna will receive them, so he moves two points closer to series leader Giorgio Pantano - the gap between them now 11 points.

Alvaro Parente was also very impressive throughout the session, and will start alongside Senna on the front row in his Super Nova entry. Romain Grosjean was next up for ART Grand Prix, and was another to improve on his final lap despite waved yellow flags for Luca Filippi's Arden car, which was buried in the Pouhon tyre wall.

Series leader Giorgio Pantano was fifth fastest, and so will start fourth, ahead of Andi Zuber (Piquet Sports), Sebastien Buemi (Arden), Mike Conway (Trident), Andy Soucek (Super Nova) and Pastor Maldonado (Piquet).

Maldonado was fastest when he caused a red flag halfway through the session when he spun into the barriers on the exit of Malmedy, damaging his left-rear corner. He will start ninth.

Others to crash out included Lucas di Grassi (on his out lap), Sakon Yamamoto (ART) and Kamui Kobayashi (DAMS). Roldan Rodriguez (FMS) spun at Pouhon while marshals were retrieving Filippi's car, so the stewards' room is likely to be a busy place for the next couple of hours while incidents are investigated.

Pos  Driver       Team                     Time               Laps
 1.  Chandhok     iSport International     2:15.489            11
 2.  Senna        iSport International     2:15.550  + 0.061   11
 3.  Parente      Super Nova Racing        2:16.100  + 0.611   11
 4.  Grosjean     ART Grand Prix           2:16.280  + 0.791   12
 5.  Pantano      Racing Engineering       2:16.291  + 0.802    9
 6.  Zuber        Piquet Sports            2:16.370  + 0.881    9
 7.  Buemi        Trust Team Arden         2:16.786  + 1.297   11
 8.  Conway       Trident Racing           2:16.853  + 1.364   12
 9.  Soucek       Super Nova Racing        2:16.958  + 1.469   11
10.  Maldonado    Piquet Sports            2:17.310  + 1.821    4
11.  Petrov       Barwa Campos Team        2:17.374  + 1.885    7
12.  Valerio      Durango                  2:17.587  + 2.098   13
13.  Valsecchi    Durango                  2:17.757  + 2.268   13
14.  Nunes        DPR                      2:17.857  + 2.368   13
15.  Asmer        FMS International        2:17.969  + 2.480   13
16.  Valles       BCN Competicion          2:18.097  + 2.608   11
17.  Rodriguez    FMS International        2:18.170  + 2.681   11
18.  Herck        DPR                      2:18.206  + 2.717   12
19.  Tung         Trident Racing           2:18.836  + 3.347   12
20.  Filippi      Trust Team Arden         2:19.174  + 3.685    6
21.  D'ambrosio   Dams                     2:19.394  + 3.905    9
22.  Villa        Racing Engineering       2:21.482  + 5.993   12
23.  Iaconelli    BCN Competicion          2:22.089  + 6.600   12
24.  Yamamoto     ART Grand Prix           2:22.764  + 7.275    5
25.  Kobayashi    Dams                     2:24.020  + 8.531    3

Outside 107%

     Di Grassi    Barwa Campos Team        2:30.459  + 14.970   2