Nico Hulkenberg defied the blistering conditions to continue where he left off this morning and claim pole position for tomorrow's race one in Valencia, ahead of title rivals Vitaly Petrov and Lucas di Grassi.

The German was at the sharp end of the timesheets throughout the session, but his best lap of 1:45.025 set late in the session put him four tenths ahead of his rivals, and when Petrov was struck down with an electrical gremlin and had to stop in the pits, the battle was over.

Luca Filippi and di Grassi set the early running, but normal service soon returned as Petrov and Hulkenberg made the battle their own: the pair seemed to be in a different league to their rivals who were unable to get close to the lap times the title contenders were setting.

Filippi looked to get a jump on the field by getting out early on fresh tyres while the others sat in the pits, but the plan failed when he had a heavy shunt at turn 20, wrecking his car and bringing out the red flags: thankfully he was unhurt, but the rest of the field had to sit in the oppressive heat in their cars while the track was cleared.

When the all-clear was given, the drivers sprinted out, with most improving their times, including Hulkenberg. Petrov looked to be catching him until he unexpectedly returned to the pits, and after a call to the weighbridge was unable to restart the car due to an electrical problem: the German continued to circulate in case of an emergency, but as the chequered flag was waved pole was his.

Behind the top three Sergio Perez returned to form with a fine fourth place, just ahead of Roldan Rodriguez, Alvaro Parente, Dani Clos and Karun Chandhok, but with the three title contenders in the first three positions it's fair to say that tomorrow all eyes will be glued to the front of the grid when the lights go out.