Fast in free practice earlier today, Arden's Charles Pic gave his absolute best during qualifying and fended off Davide Valsecchi's attacks to claim a maiden pole position on his second ever GP2 race weekend. iSport rookie Oliver Turvey will start next to him on tomorrow's grid.

On a still dirty track, GP2 Asia Series' leader Valsecchi was soon on top of the timesheets and looking to repeat his performance from last round at the same track. Although quickest during free practice, Luca Filippi's hopes of shining again in qualifying were ruined after just thirteen minutes following a technical gremlin on his Meritus car.

As the track improved, so did the lap times and Pic was on a mission. He claimed the top spot with nine minutes still on the clock, 0.3s faster than Valsecchi. But the Italian would not let the Frenchman get away with it and thus began one of the most hotly disputed poles in the history of the series, each man bettering the lap time of the other lap after lap. Sam Bird (ART) tried to join the battle, moving up to P3 but was soon denied the spot by GP2 returnee Javier Villa.

In the very last minute of the session, rookie Jules Bianchi improved in all sectors and placed his ART car in third place and as the chequered flag fell, Valsecchi ran a bit too wide in the last corner leaving Pic with the satisfaction of snatching his first pole position.

But the session was not over for one man: quickest in sector 3 on his last attempt, Turvey denied his teammate tomorrow's front row which will consist exclusively of series newcomers.

Behind the top three, Bianchi finished a strong fourth ahead of another rookie Alexander Rossi (Meritus).