Superleague Formula comeback kid Ben Hanley stormed to pole position for Olympiacos at China's newest racetrack, the 2.3-mile Ordos International in Inner Mongolia.

Hanley, who missed the previous Algarve round due to a clashing karting commitment, defeated the 'home' club, Beijing Guoan, by over a second in the head-to-head final. Hanley produced a 1m30.347s lap against Beijing's John Martin's 1m31.440s, turning around a deficit in timing splits one and two by thrashing his rival in the final sector. The Briton had looked like he was going out at the semi-final stage, before he pulled out his sector three trick against Flamengo's Andy Soucek. Hanley's 1m30.244s beat his rival by 0.588sec.

Martin beat Bordeaux's Franck Perera in semi-final two semi 2 by 0.445s, setting a 1m30.490s against Perera's 1m30.925s.

The title contenders have suffered a wretched time in qualifying, with Basel's Max Wissel the only one of the top four to make it into the knock-out rounds. But even then, he went out at the quarter-final stage. He will start seventh.

Points leader Davide Rigon (Anderlecht) had looked set to progress into the knock-outs until Hanley knocked him out of Group B in the dying moments. He will start ninth.

Second-placed Craig Dolby (Tottenham) suffered a fuel pressure problem in practice, and he too finished fifth in his group. He will start 10th as he was in the slower of the groups.

AC Milan's Yelmer Buurman, who suffered a disastrous Algarve, endured yet more woe. He blew an engine in practice, and only got a handful of laps in before qualifying. He will start 12th.

Pos  Driver             Team                   Time       Session
 1.  Ben Hanley         Olympiacos             1m30.347s  Pole shoot-out
 2.  John Martin        Beijing Guoan          1m31.440s  Pole shoot-out
 3.  Franck Perera      Girondins de Bordeaux  1m30.925s  Semi finals
 4.  Andy Soucek        Flamengo               1m30.832s  Semi finals
 5.  Robert Doornbos    Corinthians            1m30.614s  Quarter finals
 6.  Frederic Vervisch  Liverpool FC           1m31.098s  Quarter finals
 7.  Max Wissel         FC Basel               1m30.376s  Quarter finals
 8.  Earl Bamber        FC Porto               1m32.069s  Quarter finals
 9.  Davide Rigon       RSC Anderlecht         1m30.273s  Group B
10.  Craig Dolby        Tottenham Hotspur      1m31.706s  Group A
11.  Marcos Martinez    Sevilla FC             1m30.354s  Group B
12.  Yelmer Buurman     AC Milan               1m31.942s  Group A
13.  Adrian Valles      Sporting               1m30.546s  Group B
14.  Julien Jousse      AS Roma                1m32.114s  Group A
15.  Adderly Fong       PSV Eindhoven          1m32.829s  Group B
16.  Bruno Mendez       Atletico de Madrid     1m32.596s  Group A
17.  Giacomo Ricci      Galatasaray            1m32.999s  Group B
18.  Tristan Gommendy   Olympique Lyonnais     1m32.689s  Group A
19.  Ma Qing Hua        Team China                        Group B