Bonhomme showed no signs of letting the pressure for the championship get to him and set a blistering pace with a time of 1:22.68. Hall, who got his first podium in the last race in Porto, was 0.57 seconds behind and Ivanoff 0.70 back in third. Americans Kirby Chambliss and Michael Goulian had off-days, finishing 6th and 10th respectively, even though both are seen as contenders to win the race on Sunday.
 

“That was a good afternoon – I enjoyed that,” said Bonhomme, eager to win his first championship after finishing a close second in both 2007 and 2008. “The wind is doing some tricky things. But I don’t mind that. Maybe it’s because I’m from the U.K. where you have to fly in howling gales and slashing rain. The wind is going to be a big theme all weekend. It’s going to be fun.”
 

Bonhomme said he was feeling confident about getting a good result this weekend and not even thinking about the championship, which he could clinch with a first or second place finish on Sunday. This year Bonhomme has won twice and finished second in the other three races. He has been on a roll in the second half of the season, winning 35 out of the 39 available points from the last three races.
 

“I’m feeling unbelievably relaxed,” Bonhomme said. “I did give myself a little talking-to today just to say ‘you mustn’t peak too early’. It would be very easy to be too relaxed. The key for me is just to look forward to the race. I’m not even bothered about the championship. The thing for me is to go and have a nice Qualifying run. It doesn’t matter if I don’t get the point or if Hannes gets it. It’s not over then. And then just go into race day with the right frame of mind and have a good time.”
 

Arch has been pulling out all stops, hoping that he can win the maximum 13 points and force Bonhomme to make a mistake on the difficult Barcelona track. Arch had posted scorching times on Thursday with a new engine. But the compression ratio was found to be too high and he was forced to either modify or replace the engine. He missed training four as a result but is confident he will have the plane ready.
 

“The engine was really good, really strong as you could see in the times,” said Arch. “But it looks like there’s a problem with engine, it apparently doesn’t conform to the regulations. We’re trying to figure out the problem. Fortunately we’ve got a second engine there and we’re ready for problems like this. It’s obviously important to avoid getting distracted by all this. But that’s easier said than done. I’ll try my best. It’s a good track for me and I’m looking forward to the race.”