Championship leader Nelson Piquet Jr has put his weekend back on track by claiming a strong pole at the Nurburgring, stopping the clock with a lap of 1:40.799, set just minutes before the end of qualifying.

Piquet, who had only two flying laps in this morning's free practice after a problem left him on the side of the track, spoilt Franck Perera's party after the Frenchman looked to have done enough to claim his first GP2 pole position until the dying minutes of the session.

Starting tomorrow's race from the second row will be Lewis Hamilton, who is aiming to put his disappointing Imola weekend behind him, and Hiroki Yoshimoto, who will be hoping to make his second podium visit in as many races.

Jose Maria Lopez lead the field onto the track, and in the opening laps he and Hamilton swapped fastest times on each circuit before Perera set what looked to be an unbeatable time of 1:41.241 six minutes into the session.

Piquet started the session sedately but built up to the time, taking second place off Hamilton before pitting for new tyres and one last, successful, charge.

Hamilton almost put himself off track in his efforts to take his first pole when he dived up the inside of Yoshimoto at the chicane: he bounced off the kerb and spun, lightly tapping the Japanese driver as he went, but the Briton caught his car and was able to get back on track.

As expected the tricky Nurburgring layout heavily penalised even the smallest mistakes: with just one second separating the first 16 drivers and two seconds covering 24 cars, any error was always going to be costly.

Nonetheless the blistering pace meant that every driver in the field was inside of last year's pole time of 1:43.862, set by Giorgio Pantano.