Tarquini claims pole position at Valencia

Gabriele Tarquini (1:44.111) claimed his third pole position of the season at Valencia’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo today ahead of Chevrolet championship rivals, Rob Huff (1:44.193) and Yvan Muller (1:44.258). Andy Priaulx – currently second in the Drivers’ Championship – qualified tenth.

Kristian Poulsen was the fastest independent in 13th ahead of Spanish newcomer Marc Carol (14th). Fredy Barth (1:45.070) topped the rookies in eighth.

Q1 – It was the Swiss drivers on top in Q1 as Fredy Barth recorded best times in the first two sectors and a personal best in S3 to record a 1:44.604, putting him on top at the end of the first part of the session. His countryman Alain Menu was second fastest in his Chevrolet Cruze.

Franz Engstler caused yellow flags at Turn 5, after ending in the gravel and having to be towed away ending his session early. Norbert Michelisz spun out at Turn 3 while in ninth and as he was then unable to improve his time, was slowly pushed down the order by the end of the session to finish 13th overall.

Andy Priaulx improved his time to haul his BMW 320si into the top ten while Pouslen briefly knocked Tom Coronel out. Coronel and Tiago Monteiro improved again to make the final ten going through to Q2: Barth, Menu, Tarquini, Coronel, Augusto Farfus, Tiago Monteiro, Jordi Gené, Yvan Muller, Rob Huff and Andy Priaulx. The latter made it through beatoing Michel Nykjær by just 26-hundreths of a second in what was a closely fought session with less than a second covering the top 11 drivers.

Q2 – In the final ten minute shootout the frontrunners all struggled to put in clean laps with no mistakes. The BMW Team RBM cars left it late to set their times but did not manage to squeeze among the first positions and remained at the bottom of the timesheet.

Gabriele Tarquini’s first run, 1:44.111, was good enough to put his SEAT León TDI pole position for the Spanish manufacturer on home soil. Huff and Muller both improved in the final seconds to finish second and third respectively, after struggling in Q1. Menu (1:44.439) was fourth joining his Chevrolet teammates at the front, however gearbox problems deprived him of a second attempt to improve.

Monteiro finished fifth ahead of Coronel, who will start 15th after receiving a 10-position grid penalty for an engine change.

Spain’s Jordi Gené (1:44.773) will therefore start sixth for his home race tomorrow ahead of Fredy Barth who could not repeat his earlier success after having no fresh tyres for Q2.