Giorgio Pantano has said that he won't take any risks in Saturday's feature race at Monza.

Pantano put in an excellent performance in qualifying on Friday to take pole position and increase his championship lead by two points.

The Racing Engineering man now leads Bruno Senna by 13 points with just this weekend's event standing between him and the GP2 title.

"I am happy because I scored another 2 points and this increased the gap to the rest," said Pantano.

"It's also important for tomorrow as we don't yet know the conditions, but if it is dry, I am sure there is a good chance to win. In any case, I will try to have a good race and not take risks."

Javier Villa meanwhile will line-up ninth on the grid in the sister car, his best lap a 1 minute 31.797 seconds – half a second off his team-mate.

"It was a good qualifying. We did P9 and are 0.5 seconds off Giorgio," he reflected. "Given the fact that we had a wet free practice and after were so strong in a dry qualifying, if tomorrow's race is a dry one, I am sure we have even more potential to improve."

"Amazing - both drivers did fantastically. It's the best start to a weekend we could have," summed-up Racing Engineering boss, Alfonso de Orleans Borbón. "Now we have to keep our heads down and prepare for tomorrow [Saturday]'s race. Good job by everyone in the team, after two complicated weekends, this is what they really deserve."