Qualifying - Yvan Muller on pole position

Gene second, Menu third

Former champion Yvan Muller will be on pole for Race 1 in Curitiba tomorrow, for the second year in succession. In a closely fought session the top seven cars ended within 0.2 seconds of each other. Chevrolet dominated the session with Alain Menu (1:23.829) and Rob Huff (1:23.833) being placed third and fourth. Only Jordi Gené in his SEAT León TDI managed to split the team mates by jumping to second with his lap of 1:23.757 in the dying seconds.

Q1- Rob Huff dominated Q1 smashing the circuit qualifying record of 1:24.196 with his early lap of 1:23.831. Despite being the first driver of the weekend to lap in under 1:24 he continued to push, beating his own time in the final minutes to sail through to Q2 with a time of 1:23.630.

His Chevrolet team mates Alain Menu (1:23.730) and Yvan Muller (1:23.923) also jumped up the order in the final minutes to make it a Chevrolet top three. Augusto Farfus (1:24.006) was the top BMW racer with Norbert Michelisz putting in a great lap in his SEAT León TDI, while in danger of dropping out the top ten, to post the fifth quickest time of 1:24.019.

Tiago Monteiro and Tom Coronel were left to fight for the final spot in Q2 and eventually, with a lap of 1:24.558, the Dutchman kicked his team-mate off by only four thousandths of a second.

Stefano D’Aste’s time of 1:25.153 jumped him ahead of Darryl O’Young to lead the Independents’, claiming the 13th position overall.

Q2- As the top ten drivers headed into the final 10-minute shoot out, Chevrolet was quick to assert their dominance with Muller, Menu and Huff topping the timesheet. As the chequered flag approached a nine-car slipstream of cars headed out on track with only Farfus remaining in the pits. Muller improved to secure his pole position while Gené’s final lap of 1:23.757 claimed a front row start for SR-Sport.

A mistake from the consistently quick newcomer Michelisz meant he ran wide through the Curva da Vitoria hindering his own, Menu’s and Priaulx’s final run, although the Swiss managed to savage third ahead of team mate Huff. Reigning champion Tarquini claimed fifth ahead of Priaulx and Farfus, a disappointing result after the BMW 320si’s had been setting the pace for most of the weekend.

Danish racer Michel Nykjær posted the eighth quickest time and will start Race 1 tomorrow as the best of the rookies, while Coronel and Michelisz rounded out the top ten.

Yvan MULLER – pole position: “My colour has changed from last year but I’m always pleased to be on pole. It’s a good way to start the season and good for building relations with my new team. I am happy for them as it shows all the hard work over the winter has paid off as the Chevrolets are placed first, third and fourth on the grid.”

Jordi GENÉ – 2nd fastest: “I’m very pleased as it has been a big effort from the team and great having the support of SEAT. The level of the championship is as high as ever so it’s going to be difficult to stay on top.”

Alain MENU – 3rd fastest: “It was a shame to have my lap spoiled by Michelisz’s mistake on the final corner as I was on the way to improve. But it’s a good start for Chevrolet and we are pleased to be on the pace.”

Stefano D’ASTE – fastest independent: “If you had asked me two days ago if I would be here I would have said no as we’ve had lots of problems. BMW Motorsport have been a great help with some adjustments and the team and my engineer made some last minute set-up changes that worked well.”

Michel NYKJÆR – fastest rookie: “Coming here as a newcomer and also with it being my first time at the track I’m pleased to get through to Q2. I’m very happy and the team are pleased as well.”