Super Nova’s Luca Filippi took a surprise pole position for the first race of the 2007 GP2 series in Bahrain, just under a tenth of a second quicker than Piquet Sports’ Xandi Negrao. Andreas Zuber was third quickest for iSport, with Lucas di Grassi fourth for reigning champions ART. Bruno Senna was an impressive fifth on his GP2 début for Arden.

Former GP2 driver Adam Carroll has been confirmed for 2007 at the Futurecom-TME DTM team. The Ulsterman, who had a strong first season in GP2, suffered a disastrous 2006 at Racing Engineering.

Futurecom-TME Team Principal Colin Kolles said: “Besides his achievements in motor sport it should also be mentioned that Adam is a strong character who fits in well with the team. With his experience, he’ll surely help us to improve. We are all looking forward to a new exciting season and enjoyable teamwork”

Kolles is, of course, also the team principal of the Spyker F1 team.

Toro Rosso’s Franz Tost has sounded a more conciliatory note in the ongoing row over the legality of the team’s 2007 car, with a meeting arranged by Bernie Ecclestone due to take place over the Bahrain GP weekend.

“Hopefully there will be a solution for us and Formula One in general,” said Tost. “You never know how it will end. As far as I know from (Spyker Team Principal Colin) Kolles, it’s a matter of money.”

Tost’s stance appears to be slightly less belligerent than that of team boss Gerhard Berger.

Team Australia’s Will Power took provisional pole position for this weekend’s Champ Car race at Long Beach, ahead of reigning champion Sebastien Bourdais and teammate Simon Pagenaud. Justin Wilson was tenth fastest, with Katherine Legge twelfth.

Team Germany continued their domination of the second season of A1GP as Christian Vietoris topped the times in both rookie practice sessions. Team GB had an encouraging day with Oliver Turvey going third fastest in the second rookie practice before race driver Robbie Kerr took over for the free practice session and went fastest ahead of Jonny Reid for Team New Zealand and Team France’s Jean-Karl Vernay. Nico Hülkenberg was sixth fastest but only has to finish ahead of Reid in the sprint race to secure the title for Team Germany.

Kimi Raikkonen was on form for Ferrari in both free practice sessions for this weekend’s F1 race in Bahrain, followed by teammate Felipe Massa, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and BMW-Sauber’s Robert Kubica in the first session and Hamilton, Massa and Kubica in the second. Hamilton’s teammate Fernando Alonso was fifth quickest in both sessions.