Czech bounces back to claim pole.

Tomas Enge endured an anxious few minutes before reclaiming top spot as the FIA F3000 Championship roared back into life at the Nurburgring.

The Czech driver had held provisional pole position after the first 45-minute session, setting his time early on and then watching while the rest of the 23-car field attempted to overhaul it, but suffered a reversal of fortune in the second, when Ricardo Sperafico jumped to the top of the times within minutes of leaving the pits.

The Brazilian, not too familiar with the Nurburgring circuit before this weekend, used the opening session to get his bearings - placing sixth overall - before leaping to the top of the timesheets early in the second. The gap back to Enge was a scant 0.004secs, but the Nordic Racing driver seemed, at the point, unable to claw back the deficit.

Sperafico's reign at the top of the pile was to be relatively short-lived, however, as Australia's Mark Webber made full use of a set-up change to snatch pole away from the Petrobras Jr driver. Again the gap was 0.004secs, with Webber recording a 1min 30.500secs lap around the Eifel mountains venue.

Sperafico then did his chances of reclaiming the number one spot little good with a big spin at the back of the circuit, the Brazilian guilty of giving it a footful of power with his left-hand wheels on the dirt.

In the same instant, Enge popped in the best lap of the day, like Webber having made a pit-stop for changes to his Lola. This time, there was little opportunity for anyone to go faster, and the Czech sealed an important advantage as he seeks to get his championship challenge back on track after a no-score in Monaco.

Webber and Sperafico maintained their order behind the Nordic driver as those behind improved but not by enough to upset the pace-setters. David Saelens was best of the rest, albeit slipping from second between sessions to fourth at the end of the day.The Belgian was another to suffer a trip across the gravel, which blunted his challenge for top spot.

Starting one place behind the European Minardi driver will be Sebastien Bourdais, another to bounce his way through the session on surfaces other than tarmac, but no doubt more anxious to avoid the sort of confrontation with Saelens which the Belgian perpetrated at the start of last year's event here.

Sixth and seventh places fell to the two leading British drivers in the series, but the inside of row four will not be what points leader Justin Wilson was looking for. With his title rivals lining up at the front of the grid, the second Nordic driver was hoping to build on his fifth place after session one but, despite an early improvement, no further gains were forthcoming, and a late trip across the final chicane put paid to any hope of being at the sharp end.

Darren Manning, by contrast, spent a lot of the second session in pit-lane, and had to rely on his first session time to secure a place on row three.

The rest of the top ten was completed by Antonio Pizzonia - another to slip down the order after a long spell in the pits - Ricardo Mauricio - who completed a session-high 53 laps - and Giorgio Pantano - for once showing the sort of form which recommended him to Astromega.

Patrick Freisacher, a frontrunner in recent events, could only manage eleventh this time out, despite finding sixth-tenths in the second session, while other notables such as Bas Leinders (17th) and Dino Morelli (19th) will be disappointed with their efforts.

Prost Junior newcomers Jonathan Cochet and Zsolt Baumgartner did not disgrace themselves, as the tail of the field produced more changes than the front. Both rookies spent as much time on row ten as they did on row twelve but, when the chequered flag fell, it was Cochet who came out on top, securing 18th spot to Baumgartner's 23rd.