Justin Wilson celebrated his 29th birthday in style by defying the changeable Dutch weather and claiming provisional pole position for the latest round of the ChampCar World Series at Assen.

The Briton had not been in contention at the sharp end as light rain began to fall after 23 minutes of the half-hour session, at which point the team Australia car of Simon Pagenaud occupied the top spot.

But, despite the drizzle, the RuSPORT driver stormed around the circuit in 1:30.656 with his final effort, to knock Pagenaud off the pole spot by 0.894 seconds.

In doing so he also won himself a bonus championship point and guaranteed himself a front-row spot for Sunday's race.

Third fastest was PKV rookie Tristan Gommendy with Graham Rahal's Newman/Haas/Lanigan entry fourth and Oriol Servia's Forsythe car fifth.

Triple champion Sebastien Bourdais, won is gunning for a fourth straight victory in the Netherlands, was only sixth fastest in the second NHL car while Will Power was right behind him in his Team Australia car.

Robert Doornbos who, like Power, still has a slight chance of beating Bourdais to the championship, was the best Minardi USA driver in eighth. Canadians Alex Tagliani and Paul Tracy completed the top ten for Rocketsports and Forsythe.

14th, after escaping a race-ban for his part in a practice crash last weekend in Belgium, was Britain's Dan Clarke in the second Minardi car, while Ryan Dalziel and Katherine Legge were 16th and 17th for Pacific Coast and Dale Coyne.

Jamie O'Leary / Eurosport