FIA INTERNATIONAL FORMULA 3000 
ROUND 3 QUALIFYING AT BARCELONA, SPAIN

Sebastien Bourdais displayed yet another fantastic qualifying performance to take his third successive pole position of the season.  He took pole after only his first timed lap, taking advantage of the grip on the track from the Formula One cars which had been out beforehand.  He held onto the position ahead of Tomas Enge until the end of the two forty minute sessions.  Tiago Monteiro who had only driven here for half a day earlier this year had to learn the track again during the first session where he finished thirteenth.  He kept his two other sets of new tyres until the second session.  He went quicker on his second set but unfortunately a change to the car for his final set of tyres did not make the ideal set-up for Tiago so he didn't improve his time and finished fifteenth overall.  Championship leader Rodrigo Sperafico starts the race in sixth position. 

Sebastien Bourdais (1:32.779 - P1) "I am completely happy with what happened in qualifying today.  I just had to take the benefit of the grip on the track from the F1 tyres - even if the set-up was better at the end of the session the track was a lot slower then.  It is difficult to anticipate the level of grip on the track but we did it right today and on my second set of tyres at the end of the session we set a 1:33.8 which was really quick.  We have found a big part to the solution we have been searching for since the beginning of the season so I'm really happy with that.  I have to take a good start tomorrow - it is the crucial point to the event as it is very difficult to overtake here."  

Tiago Monteiro (1:33.991 - P15) "I used the first set of new tyres to make some notes about the track again as I have only driven here for half a day before.  The car was really, really understeering and I didn't like this and we kept the same tyres on through until the end of the first session.  We changed a lot on the car for the second session as I really wanted to get the car oversteering, but there was still a little understeer.  On the third set of tyres we did a massive change on the car which was in-between both set-ups and unfortunately it wasn't a good solution as the car started to understeer again and we didn't improve the time or position.  I knew it wasn't going to be easy here.  The start tomorrow is very, very important, as it is very difficult to overtake at this circuit.  Once again I want to finish the race, it's only my third one so I'm not really worried but I am not really happy either."  

Team Manager - David Sears "Sebastien made it three poles in three races which hasn't been done since Juan Pablo Montoya drove for us in 1998.  This is a fantastic result for Sebastien and the team in a one make category.  Hopefully tomorrow Sebastien can back up the win he had here in the Sports car race three weeks ago with another F3000 win.  He is definitely a man on form.”

Tiago Monteiro was looking good for a top ten qualifying position on his second set of tyres but unfortunately failed to go quicker on his last set and ended up fifteenth overall. 

Driver          Team                   Session 1/Session 2
1 S. Bourdais     Super Nova Racing         1'32.779 / 1'33.006
2 T. Enge     Arden International         1'32.866 / 1'32.913
3 G. Pantano     Coloni F3000           1'33.081 / 1'33.092
4 M. Haberfeld     Team Astromega         1'33.168 / 1'33.640
5 R. Mauricio     Red Bull Junior Team         1'33.818 / 1'33.265
6 Rodrigo Sperafico   Durango Formula         1'33.831 / 1'33.313
7 P. Friesacher     Red Bull Junior Team         1'33:336 / 1'33.530
8 E. Toccacelo     Coloni F3000           1'33.763 / 1'33.377
9 A. Pizzonia     Petrobras Junior Team       1'34.095 / 1'33.423
10 Ricardo Sperafico   Petrobras Junior Team       1'34.332 / 1'33.450
11 D. Saelens     European Minardi F3000       1'33.452 / 1:33.891
12 B. Wirdheim     Arden International         1'33.466 / 1'33.690
13 A. Muller     Durango Formula         1'38.475 / 1'33.678
14 N. Kiesa     PSM Racing Line         1'34.392 1'33.978
15 T. Monteiro   Super Nova Racing         1'34.256 / 1'33.991
16 Z. Baumgartner   Coca-Cola Nordic Racing       1'34.010 / 1'34.126
17 R. Nguyen     Team Astromega         1'34.281 / 1'34.246
18 R. Briscoe     Coca-Cola Nordic Racing       1'34.311 / 1'34.529
19 T. Schmidt     PSM Racing Line         1'35.217 / 1'34.509
20 A. Sperafico     European Minardi F3000       1'36.274 / 1'35.523

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