Monza - Huff makes three poles out of three

Chevrolet’s Rob Huff is still undefeated in this season’s qualifying as he claimed today his third pole position out of three events.

The championship leader posted the fastest lap in Q2 at Monza, outpacing his team-mates Yvan Muller and Alain Menu; the latter managed to recover third position just as the chequered flag was waved.

Yokohama Trophy competitor Norbert Michelisz set the fourth fastest lap, ahead of Tiago Monteiro and Darryl O’Young.

Q1 – Tom Coronel posted the fastest lap of 1:59.907 with two minutes left on the clock. The Dutchman demoted Norbert Michelisz to second as the Hungarian youngster had previously completed a lap of 1:59.961.

Tiago Monteiro ranked 10th in the session with the time of 2:00.549 and won pole position for tomorrow’s second race. Rob Huff (9th with 2:00.515) will complete the front row.

The following drivers qualified for Q2: Coronel, Michelisz, Poulsen, O’Young, Menu, Bennani, Muller, Tarquini, Huff and Monteiro.

Javier Villa and Pepe Oriola were the first two drivers excluded from Q2 as they qualified 11th and 12th respectively.

Q2 – The three Chevrolet drivers took the track as soon as the pitlane opened to play the splipstreaming game chased by a bunch of SEAT and BMW cars.

Muller set a provisional pole of 1:59.131 followed by Michelisz (1:59.458) and Monteiro (1:59.574).

On his second flying lap Huff improved to 1:59.034, beating Muller’s time by less than one tenth of a second. Later on Menu clocked a 1:59.433 that gave him a last-gasp third place.
Michelisz, and Monteiro were classified fourth and fifth with O’Young sixth after he aborted his last attempt for driving too wide at the Parabolica.

Gabriele Tarquini’s hopes were jeopardized when the window of his left door broke apart shooting splinters of glass inside the cockpit. The Italian driver underwent medical checks at the track’s infirmary to be sure that his eyes were unscathed.