Senna beat home hero Romain Grosjean (ART Grand Prix) to pole position by just 0.037s, but in doing so booted his car out of the final chicane.
His iSport machine got into a tank-slapper, and although he saved the car from hitting the wall head-on, he removed the right-rear corner, and rear wing, against the tyre wall that juts out on the right-side of the track.
Senna had spun at the same place in free practice this morning, and evidently worked out that the fastest way to finish the lap was by nailing the throttle after jumping the kerbs - just like his uncle Ayrton did in qualifying here in 1991, spinning across the finish line.
Senna has now left his iSport crew with a rebuilding job overnight.
It was immensely close at the top, with just 0.051s covering the top three. Giorgio Pantano was also well in with a shout of pole, but locked up at Chateau d'Eau on what was to prove his quickest lap.
Fourth went to Piquet Sports' Andi Zuber, who was repeatedly baulked by traffic, while Sebastien Buemi bounced back from a troubled free practice to land a top five starting spot for Arden.
Lucas di Grassi was sixth on his GP2 return for Campos, ahead of Kamui Kobayashi (DAMS) and Vitaly Petrov (Campos). Pastor Maldonado was a lowly ninth for Piquet Sports, while also off-form was Karun Chandhok (iSport) in 10th, just ahead of recent test pace-setter Luca Filippi (ART).
Ben Hanley was 16th in his first session with Durango, while Marko Asmer won the battle of the newcomers and will start 23rd for FMS. Carlos Iaconelli (BCN) and Michael Herck (DPR) round out the grid.
Those who will have expected more are Barcelona winner Alvaro Parente, who starts down in 21st, and Javier Villa, who was third fastest for Racing Engineering this morning before he crashed. He starts 24th.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Senna iSport International 1:22.250 13 2. Grosjean ART Grand Prix 1:22.287 + 0.037 16 3. Pantano Racing Engineering 1:22.301 + 0.051 18 4. Zuber Piquet Sports 1:22.380 + 0.130 15 5. Buemi Trust Team Arden 1:22.619 + 0.369 15 6. Di Grassi Barwa Campos Team 1:22.708 + 0.458 16 7. Kobayashi Dams 1:22.726 + 0.476 15 8. Petrov Barwa Campos Team 1:22.774 + 0.524 16 9. Maldonado Piquet Sports 1:22.780 + 0.530 14 10. Chandhok iSport International 1:22.821 + 0.571 16 11. Filippi ART Grand Prix 1:22.956 + 0.706 17 12. Soucek Super Nova Racing 1:23.035 + 0.785 16 13. D'ambrosio Dams 1:23.094 + 0.844 15 14. Conway Trident Racing 1:23.154 + 0.904 16 15. Nunes DPR 1:23.158 + 0.908 15 16. Hanley Durango 1:23.191 + 0.941 16 17. Tung Trident Racing 1:23.331 + 1.081 16 18. Valles BCN Competicion 1:23.372 + 1.122 16 19. Buurman Trust Team Arden 1:23.441 + 1.191 16 20. Rodriguez FMS International 1:23.467 + 1.217 18 21. Parente Super Nova Racing 1:23.787 + 1.537 16 22. Valerio Durango 1:23.853 + 1.603 17 23. Asmer FMS International 1:23.870 + 1.620 16 24. Villa Racing Engineering 1:23.998 + 1.748 15 25. Iaconelli BCN Competicion 1:24.784 + 2.534 15 26. Herck DPR 1:25.668 + 3.418 11
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