Spirit of Norway's Bjorn Gjelsten and Steve Cutis opened up a 32-point gap in the Pole Position Championship after going fastest in qualifying for today's Qatar Duty Free Grand Prix.

Second fastest were Mohammad Al Merri and Jean Marc Sanchez in Victory 77 with Hassan Al Thani and Matteo Nicolini third in Qatar 96.

Gjelsten and Curtis set the pace on their opening run with a time of 2mins 42.69secs, matching it with an identical time on their second effort.

But they were forced to take their final run after Al Merri and Sanchez produced a blistering second lap of 2mins 41.87secs that put them into provisional pole position.

Gjelsten and Curtis responded in emphatic style posting a time of 2mins 39.32secs around the 4.86 nautical mile course.

"We messed up a little on our opening runs and didn't get the lines right," said Curtis.

"We were very aggressive on our last and were pretty much on the limit. We ran the same set up today as we used in Thursday's practice but didn't seem to have the same performance which surprised us a little.

"The conditions were a little tricky with the sun blinding us on the long inward leg."

Despite a valiant effort on their last lap, Al Merri and Sanchez were unable to improve on their time and had to settle for the second place.

"Our last run right up until the final buoy was looking like it would be good enough, but we caught the wake of a boat in front and that cost us the pole," said Sanchez.

In third place and in front of a partisan crowd were Hassan Al-Thani and Matteo Nicolini in Qatar 96.

"I think we are happy with this performance today and with how we had the boat set up this was about the best we could do. Today we had good top end speed but we may change and focus on better acceleration for the race," commented Nicolini.

Championship leaders Ali Nasser and Ali Al Qama, in Victory 7, will start today's Qatar Grand Prix in fourth place with Chris Parsonage and Peter McGrath in Negotiator improving on their times in practice, taking fifth.

After suffering engine problems in practice, sixth place was respectable for Bernhard Bellmann and Jann Hillestad in Jotun finishing ahead of Edoardo Polli and Lamberto Leoni in Highlander, running with the Mercury HP1075Sci V8s for the first time in Class 1 competition.

GFN Gibellato's Giampoalo Montavoci and Domenico Cirilli were eighth, ahead of Bard Eker and Class 1 newcomer Ricardo Brkovic in Hydrolift and Nicola Giorgi and Mauro Esperto in Roscioli Hotels.

Standings
Qatar Grand Prix pole positions:
1. Spirit of Norway - Gjelsten/Curtis 20pts; 2. Victory 77 - Al Merri/Sanchez 15pts; 3. Qatar 96 - Al-Thani/Nicolini 12pts; 4. Victory 7 - Nasser/Al Qama 9pts; 5. Negotiator - Parsonage/McGrath 7pts; 6. Jotun - Bellmann/Hillestad 5pts; 7. Highlander - Polli/Corti - not racing for points; 8. GFN Gibellato - Montavoci/Cirilli 4pts; 9. Hydrolift - Eker/Jacobsen 3pts; 10. Roscioli Hotels - Giorgi/Esperto 2pts

Overall pole positions:

1. Spirit of Norway - Gjelsten/Curtis 95pts; 2. Victory 7 - Nasser/Al Qama 63pts; 3. Victory 77 - Al Merri/Sanchez 60pts; 4. Qatar - Al-Thani/Nicolini 43pts; 5. Jotun - Bellmann/Hillestad 37pts; 6. Negotiator - Parsonage/ McGrath 26pts; 7. GFN Gibellato - Montavoci/Cirilli 17pts; 8= Roscioli Hotels - Giorgi/Esperto 13pts; 8. Highlander - Polli/Corti 13pts; 10. Hydrolift - Eker/Jacobsen 8pts.