RSC Anderlecht’s Davide Rigon secured pole position for his home race at Adria with a dominant performance in qualifying at the Italian circuit.

Having broken the track’s lap record in free practice, Rigon was faster than anyone in the group stages and went on to beat championship leader Yelmer Buurman of AC Milan, series debutant Ben Hanley of Olympiacos and John Martin of Beijing Guoan in the knockout phase.

“I’m very happy to have taken pole position here,” said Rigon afterwards. “It wasn’t easy but the car felt really good apart from a small problem we had during the semi final. There is definitely more speed in the car and on new tyres tomorrow we will see how we go.”

Martin settled for second on the grid after losing out to Rigon and was left ruing a mistake in the final, where he locked up into turn 1, that cost him a chance of pole.

“It’s very good to be on the front row, but I’m a bit disappointed that my mistake in the final cost me the chance of pole position,” he said. “Davide did a good job though but we’ve got new tyres for tomorrow so we will see what the race brings.”

Third place went to FC Porto’s Alvaro Parente, who lost his semi final to Martin, while former Renault Development Driver Hanley, who is filling in for the injured Chris van der Drift, will start a fine fourth on debut.

“I’m relatively pleased with that performance,” said the British driver. “The car feels good on old and new tyres so fourth is a good place to start the race.”

Championship rivals Yelmer Buurman (AC Milan) and Craig Dolby (Tottenham Hotspur) will start tomorrow’s first race down in eighth and ninth places after below-par qualifying sessions.

Buurman sneaked into the quarter finals, but was beaten by Rigon, while Dolby didn’t even get that far as he was edged out of the top four in Group B by just 6 thousandths of a second by another newcomer, Frederic Vervisch in the Liverpool car.

As well as Hanley and Vervisch, the series also welcomed two more new faces at Adria.

British F3 racer Hywel Lloyd has taken over the PSV Eindhoven car from the unavailable Narain Karthikeyan, while European F3 Open Vice Champion and current A1GP racer Celso Miguez has taken the vacant seat at French club Olympique Lyonnais. Neither made it past the groups in qualifying.