Oschersleben - Muller on pole, the Volvo second

Volvo, SUNRED and BMW are closing in on Chevrolet

By Franck Drui

30 July 2011 - 15:29
Oschersleben - Muller on pole, the (...)

Yvan Muller claimed his third pole position of the season, and the eighth for Chevrolet in eight events. However Robert Dahlgren created a surprise, claiming the best qualifying result for Volvo in WTCC as he managed to rank second between Muller and Rob Huff.

All considered, the Chevrolet team was less dominant than in previous occasions as Gabriele Tarquini and Tom Coronel were able to qualify fourth and fifth, close enough to Huff and ahead of Alain Menu.

These results proved that Volvo, SUNRED and BMW are closing in on Chevrolet in terms of pure performance and promise exciting races for tomorrow.

Q1 – After only five minutes Robert Dahlgren posted a fastest lap of 1:34.886 that nobody was able to improve it. However the show was not over, because halfway through the session the rest of the field started fighting to make the top ten.

The last three minutes were frantic, with Tom Coronel, Yvan Muller, Franz Engstler and Norbert Michelisz winning places in Q2 to the detriment of Darryl O’Young, Stefano D’Aste, Kristian Poulsen and Pepe Oriola.

Muller was forced to post a very quick lap (1:35.075) that rocketed him from 14th to second just before the chequered flag dropped.

The following drivers qualified for Q2: Dahlgren, Muller, Coronel, Huff, Tarquini, Menu, Nykjær, Michelisz, Monteiro and Engstler, who won pole position for tomorrow’s Race 2.

O’Young missed the cut by only 12 hundredths of a second.

Q2 – On his first lap Muller stopped the watches on the time of 1:34.357, with Dahlgren in second (1:34.438) and Huff in third (1:34.555).

All drivers improved on their second and last attempt, but again Muller was fastest with a lap of 1:33.712 that annihilated his rivals, leaving Dahlgren (1:34.215) and Huff (1:34.290) more than half-a-second behind.

Gabriele Tarquini’s SUNRED (1:34.519) and Tom Coronel’s BMW (1:34.635) qualified in fourth and fifth ahead of Alain Menu’s third Chevrolet.

Norbert Michelisz posted the seventh fastest lap (1:34.884) and won pole position for the Yokohama Trophy.

Pos. Driver Car Q1 time Q2 time
01 Y. Muller Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:35.075 1:33.712
02 R. Dahlgren Volvo C30 Drive 1:34.886 1:34.215
03 R. Huff Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:35.417 1:34.290
04 G. Tarquini SR Leon 1.6T 1:35.424 1:34.519
05 T. Coronel BMW 320 TC 1:35.281 1:34.635
06 A. Menu Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:35.459 1:34.673
07 N. Michelisz BMW 320 TC 1:35.556 1.34.884
08 M. Nykjaer SR Leon 1.6T 1:35.522 1:35.260
09 F. Engstler BMW 320 TC 1:35.621 1:35.370
10 T. Monteiro SR Leon 1.6T 1:35.610 1:35.501
11 D. O’Young Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:35.633
12 S. D’Aste BMW 320 TC 1:41.221
13 M. Bennani BMW 320 TC 1:35.724
14 K. Poulsen BMW 320 TC 1:35.730
15 P. Oriola SR Leon 1.6T 1:35.903
16 F. Barth SR Leon 1.6T 1:35.932
17 J. Villa BMW 320 TC 1:36.071
18 Y. Taniguchi Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T 1:36.657
19 A. Dudukalo SR Leon 1.6T 1:36.666
20 I. Okyay BMW 320si 1:38.113
21 F. Fabiani BMW 320si 1:41.754

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