Piquet Sports - Nelson Piquet Jr Pole

A very happy Nelson Piquet Jr picked up two points, and perhaps his most crucial pole position to date, in this afternoon's GP2 qualifying session at the Monza circuit in
Italy. A very tidy drive moved Nelson to within eight points of Lewis Hamilton's championship lead, with 18 points available over the weekend's two races. The result
also marked Nelson's sixth pole of the season, from eleven qualifying sessions in 2006.

Nelson's weekend has started identically to those in the last races at Hungary and Turkey. He began a good day's work by setting the fastest time in this morning's free practice session, before taking a great pole in qualifying. He ended the session almost three tenths of a second faster than second-placed Giorgio Pantano, with championship rival Hamilton in third.

There is all to play for this weekend, beginning in tomorrow's 32-lap feature race, which will begin at 4pm local time. Heading into the race Lewis has 101 points with
Nelson eight points adrift on 93 points.

Nelson Piquet Jr: Well it's just the start to the weekend that we needed so I am happy. The car is always improving and I was quite lucky in qualifying not to get any traffic or yellow flags. My lap was good but it could have been a bit better. To get the two points today was vital and now there is eight points difference. I treated today like the first challenge of the weekend, and we have done what we set out to do. Now we think about tomorrow.

Racing Engineering - Adam Carroll 4th Javier Villa 23rd

Racing Engineering's race weekend at Monza has started comfortably for Adam Carroll, who claimed fourth on the grid for tomorrow's race one in a steaming hot qualifying session at the famous circuit, but there was heartbreak for teammate Javier Villa when a problem with his brakes put the Spaniard out of the session early after he spun at the Ascari complex.

There was a solid start in this morning's free practice session when Adam finished a very competitive seventh with a time within touching distance of top man Nelson Piquet Jr, while Javi went about his usual business of learning the track ahead of qualifying. The conditions were cool, and the cloud cover overhead threatened rain for qualifying, which would have made for a very tricky session.

However, the clouds soon evaporated and the track was scorching by the time qualifying began. Adam drove a solid session to finish fourth, six tenths off polesitter Piquet, while Javi's spin meant he was unable to build on a very strong start to the session: he finished twenty third.

Team principal Alfonso de Orleans Borbon noted afterwards: It was a pretty decent qualifying session: I think Adam did great, and I'm sure he would have loved to take pole, but I think the fight between Lewis and Nelsinho is pretty much the talking point this weekend. For Javi it was a bit of a pity: something happened with the braking, and we're looking into that. Adam did a good job, he should be in a position to get a podium tomorrow, and if Lewis and Nelsinho don't kill each other on the track it should be a fairly interesting race! Everyone on the team has done a good job, the car is running well, so we're just going to get ready for tomorrow."

Back in the paddock Adam Carroll stated: Qualifying was pretty good: P4, so it's not bad really. The car was good, I pushed hard and it held in there, so near the front is not a bad place to start. The track has a few wide places, and a lot of long, long straights, so hopefully tomorrow can be a good race: I'm going to try and get a podium, but there's a lot of tough competition ahead of me. We've just got to go out there tomorrow and get stuck in, and then see what happens."

A reflective Javier Villa commented: In the fastest chicane at the braking point I lost the rear and did a spin, and that was the end of qualifying for me. When I spun I was thirteenth I think, and I probably would have been about fifteenth or sixteenth, but now we need to work hard tomorrow. We have a spare set of tyres, so we'll see."

Super Nova International - Jose Maria Lopez 15th Fairuz Fauzy 25th

The 2006 GP2 finale got under way this morning at the historic circuit in Monza, the outskirts of Milan. Super Nova's Jose Maria Lopez completed just 5 laps in free practice, enduring a rather unfortunate incident when a lodged stone damaged his rear left wheel. In the afternoon heat, qualifying began promising as Jose set 4th quickest on his first set of tyres. However unable to progress further the frustrated Argentinean driver commented, "When I pushed hard, the front just kept locking up. The car kept suddenly losing grip." Jose will start a disappointing 15th position for Saturdays race.

Team mate Fairuz Fauzy, spun twice & qualified 25th clearly unhappy with the session said "I expected a better result today, so it's a big disappointment. I tried to drive smoothly, but I just couldn't find the speed in the car. Jose experienced some problems too, but I'm sure the team can solve them for tomorrow and have a good race."

The Super Nova team hope both drivers are able to take advantage of this high speed track tomorrow and work their way though to the front, where Nelson Piquet Jnr. will start, pursued by Giorgio Pantano in 2nd & Lewis Hamilton, 3rd, all eager to boast their final championship positioning.