Giorgio Pantano maintained his blistering pace in qualifying for Saturday's GP2 race in Istanbul.

Pantano, who already impressed in the morning session, secured pole after he stepped up another gear in the afternoon session.

The Italian easily claimed the top spot ahead of Andreas Zuber and Adam Carroll, setting a laptime of 1:32.659 on his final lap, with Zuber more than two tenths of a second off the pace and Ulsterman Carroll two tenths further back.

Unfortunately for Davide Valsecchi the pace was too much - the Italian lost his car at the end of the back straight and he ploughed straight into the tyre barrier in a nasty looking crash, although medical checks revealed no serious injury.

Additional to the top three, Sebastien Grosjean, Bruno Senna, Pastor Maldonado, Karun Chandhok, and Javier Villa will line up on the grid for the race.

GP2series.com / Eurosport