At just past the halfway point the red flags were out again as Indonesia spun at turn ten. After the car was recovered, the track opened for the final twenty minutes of the session with Ireland still quickest. Netherlands responded but while Bleekemolen was pushing hard for pole, Malaysia's Fairuz Fauzy briefly snuck ahead into second position.

Netherlands' next lap of 1m 24.290s was good enough to put them back ahead before Bleekemolen put in a stunning lap recording a 1m 24.213, going 0.547s faster than Ireland and good enough for pole. The red flags then came out for a third time as John Martin ended Australia's qualifying session with only 12 minutes left on the clock.

With just under eight minutes to go, the track re-opened, Portugal made its first laps of the weekend with Filipe Albuquerque at the wheel. With Jeroen Bleekemolen choosing not to go back out a tense final few minutes ensued, while he watched his competitors try to beat his time.

In an action-packed end to the session, Switzerland's Neel Jani moved up to fourth. Clivio Piccione briefly held third in his maiden qualifying session for A1 Team Monaco, ending fifth at the chequered flag. Monaco is one of two new nations on the grid this year alongside Korea, and Piccione was happy with his performance despite getting caught up in traffic.

Clivio Piccione said: "We went into Qualifying initially on an old set of tyres to get a base line set-up. The track was even windier than in the morning, so the car was a bit snappy. Unfortunately I had a bit of traffic on my flying lap, which is a shame as the performance and grip were there, but overall I am happy with the result; to be in fifth place for the start of our first race in the championship is a good result."

With four minutes to go, New Zealand put in a fantastic lap to go second. 18-year-old Earl Bamber put in an impressive performance to put Black Beauty on the front row of the grid in preparation for his first-ever A1GP race start.

"I knew it was going to be a difficult weekend for me," said the Kiwi. "It's a big step up from what I have been racing in the past, but Colin (Giltrap) has given me a fantastic opportunity this weekend, although the biggest thing was learning the circuit. The Zandvoort circuit is incredibly hard, Jeroen has driven a million laps around here, so for me it was just a case of leaning the circuit but it's really nice. I absolutely love it with the up and downs as it's very different to what we have at home in New Zealand."

Malaysia put in a late charge to move up from fifth to third, and as the final seconds ticked away the order looked set, but a final charge from Adam Carroll saw him snatch third back from Malaysia by 0.022s to put the Celtic Tiger on the second row for tomorrow's race.

"Third is a good place to start," said the Ulsterman. "We wanted to come here this weekend and score as many points as possible, the same as everybody else. I didn't quite get the lap in when I wanted to on the second run but it was a close, hard fought qualifying. We will push as hard as we can tomorrow, but it's a long race and if it's dry it's quite a physical circuit. We will see who comes out on top."

To the delight of the Dutch fans, the Netherlands held onto the front row start and will be in prime position to challenge for victory at its home event.