Pantano edges towards title with pole

Just as importantly, title rival Bruno Senna could do no better than 12th position, leaving the title Pantano's for the taking. He is now 13 points clear with 18 still up for grabs in the races.

Pantano (Racing Engineering) was in typical imperious Monza form. He produced three laps in the 1:31.2 bracket - only Lucas di Grassi (Campos) was able to come close with one of his own. Pantano's early marker was a 1:31.274, which he improved to 1:31.223 on his second set of slicks.

Di Grassi then slammed in a 1:31.239 - just 0.016 seconds slower - but Pantano responded with a 1:31.220, to increase his advantage by a further three thousandths of a second.

As Pantano was punching the air as he skipped into the weighbridge area, Senna was simultaneously punching his steering wheel in frustration, as his final, last-ditch effort was ruined by traffic.

Senna (iSport) opted to take his second set of fresh tyres early, but was never really in the hunt with the front-runners. He will now have to hope that outside factors, such as the rain that is predicted for tomorrow, to have some sort of negative effect on Pantano and propel him towards the front.

Sebastien Buemi will start third for Arden after an impressive session for the Banbury-based team, as his teammate Luca Filippi will line up alongside him on the second row.

Vitaly Petrov was fifth fastest for Campos, ahead of Piquet Sports duo Pastor Maldonado and Andi Zuber. Roldan Rodriguez (FMS), Javier Villa (Racing Engineering) and Karun Chandhok (iSport) round out the top 10.

Pos  Driver        Team                    Time              Laps
 1.  Pantano       Racing Engineering      1:31.220            12
 2.  Di Grassi     Barwa Campos Team       1:31.239  + 0.019   14
 3.  Buemi         Trust Team Arden        1:31.330  + 0.110   14
 4.  Filippi       Trust Team Arden        1:31.440  + 0.220   14
 5.  Petrov        Barwa  Campos Team      1:31.527  + 0.307   14
 6.  Maldonado     Piquet Sports           1:31.546  + 0.326   14
 7.  Zuber         Piquet Sports           1:31.663  + 0.443   13
 8.  Rodriguez     FMS International       1:31.708  + 0.488   16
 9.  Villa         Racing Engineering      1:31.797  + 0.577   15
10.  Chandhok      iSport International    1:31.810  + 0.590   11
11.  Grosjean      ART Grand Prix          1:31.949  + 0.729   13
12.  Senna         iSport International    1:31.964  + 0.744   15
13.  Valsecchi     Durango                 1:32.090  + 0.870   16
14.  Yamamoto      ART Grand Prix          1:32.092  + 0.872   14
15.  Soucek        Super Nova Racing       1:32.165  + 0.945   14
16.  Conway        Trident Racing          1:32.229  + 1.009   14
17.  Nunes         DPR                     1:32.236  + 1.016   14
18.  Kobayashi     Dams                    1:32.361  + 1.141   16
19.  D'ambrosio    Dams                    1:32.503  + 1.283   16
20.  Valerio       Durango                 1:32.550  + 1.330   15
21.  Parente       Super Nova Racing       1:32.604  + 1.384   15
22.  Asmer         FMS International       1:32.808  + 1.588   16
23.  Tung          Trident Racing          1:32.817  + 1.597   14
24.  Herck         DPR                     1:33.021  + 1.801   16
25.  Iaconelli     BCN Competicion         1:33.264  + 2.044   16