Meritus' Luca Filippi snatched pole position at Sakhir today - the final round of the season - posting a best time of 2:07.087.

The Italian stole Charles Pic's thunder in the closing minutes of the session bettering the Arden's racer's time by 0.091s. Pocketing two points as a result of taking pole, Filippi now moves up to third in the drivers' standings.

The session was dominated by six men hungry for glory: in addition to Filippi and Pic, iSport's Oliver Turvey and Davide Valsecchi, Coloni's Alvaro Parente and Arden's Javier Villa tried their best to finish the session on top, but none of them could produce the perfect lap that would better Filippi's
quickest time.

In the early stages, Giacomo Ricci and Alexander Rossi looked set for a strong result but they soon fell behind, first to Filippi and then Villa. However, it was Pic who claimed the top spot before mid-session ahead of his teammate, Filippi, Turvey and Valsecchi.

Pic clung onto what could have been his second pole position this season for as long as he could, but Filippi would not have it and improved a couple of minutes before the chequered flag. The Frenchman, iSport's duo and Parente all pushed hard on their last flying lap, but eventually surrendered, Filippi had won.

Behind the top five, Villa finished ahead of Jules Bianchi, Luiz Razia and Ricci. Rossi completed the Top ten.

Tomorrow's feature race will start at 3:45pm local time.