Second successive pole for rainmaster Bourdais.

Sebastien Bourdais and Tiago Monteiro produced a fantastic qualifying session in wet conditions for the Super Nova team, as the Frenchman secured back-to-back pole positions in the FIA F3000 series.

Although it was not raining at the start of the first forty-minute session, the track was still wet from earlier rain and both drivers excelled in the wet conditions. Series rookie Monteiro, returning to the site of one of his few F3000 tests, went quickest after just four laps, before Bourdais replaced him on his sixth lap.

For the majority of the session, the drivers were in P1 and P2, but Monteiro succumbed to improvements elsewhere and dropped to fifth by the end of the session while he was back in the pits having finished his running.

"I'm really, really happy," the Portuguese driver said, "I couldn't have expected to finish any better. I knew that the rain would help me due to my lack of experience here in the dry, so it levelled everyone out a bit.

"The team did a great job and you can see this by our pace at the beginning of qualifying when Sebastien was P1 and I was P2 for a long time. The car was just brilliant. It was a bit stressful because of the change in weather - it was not an easy situation, but it is the same for everyone.

"Tomorrow is another day. I think it will probably rain, so my aim is to finish the race. It will be tricky if it is wet, so I must keep a cool head and finish. I am really happy, not only to qualify in P5, but to finish as best rookie as well."

Just after the second session began, the rain began to fall making the track conditions slower, therefore enabling Bourdais to hold on to his second pole position in a row, with Monteiro a brilliant fifth. The Frenchman enjoyed a relatively massive eight-tenths gap back to his front row partner - Interlagos winner Rodrigo Sperafico - with expected title rival Tomas Enge only seventh.

"It was a big lottery, and I was lucky to have the right opportunity at the right time," Bourdais insisted, "We put our new wet tyres on at the right moment and it was the key to the success.

"We were on pole anyway with old tyres, but not with so much of a big gap. I am pretty confident as, even in not ideal conditions, we were on pole and the car was really efficient in the wet conditions.

"Tomorrow is another day and we need some success to win the race. I hope that we can have the perfect weekend, but let's wait and see."

"Both drivers excelled themselves in wet qualifying conditions today in Imola," commented team manager David Sears, "We had our best combined qualifying performance for a long time with Sebastien taking pole position for the second race in succession and Tiago running in second place for most of the first session and ending up fifth overall.

"Hopefully, Sebastien will get the result that he deserves in tomorrow's race, having been robbed of a win in Brazil by a puncture."