Chevrolet’s Yvan Muller this afternoon took pole position by more than three tenths of a second for race one at Brno. The Frenchman claimed his first pole position since Brands Hatch in the UK last year.
Muller will have to contend with having the current points leader, his team-mate Rob Huff, right alongside him on the grid however. The Englishman was quicker in Q1 but lost out when it came to Q2.
Qualifying for Race 1 – Pole position: Yvan Muller
Lining up on the second row of the grid will be Tom Coronel and Alain Menu. Coronel took his best qualifying result of the season, perhaps buoyed by the recent testing he and his ROAL motorsport team undertook.
Hungarian driver Norbert Michelisz was to start from fifth for race one tomorrow. However his times were later disallowed for his car being two kiolgrams underweight and he will start from the very back. Inheriting fifth place will be the Polestar Volvo of Swede Robert Dahlgren who is racing with the manufacturer’s new 1.6T engine for the first time this weekend.
Kristian Poulsen will start from sixth and Gabriele Tarquini will start from seventh for race one. Darryl O’Young and Franz Engstler will start from 8th and 9th respectively.
Qualifying for Race 2 – Pole position: Franz Engstler
Update:As a result of Norbert Michelisz being disqualified from the qualifying results the pole position for race two changes. Franz Engstler was originally due to start from pole position, however the German driver will now start from second and instead Michel Nyjaer will start from pole position, having originally been down to start from 11th.
With the grid being decided by the top ten times from Q1 reversed, Michel Nykjaer will start race two from pole position tomorrow. The Danish driver had originally been due to start from 11th but benefitted from the exclusion of Norbert Michelisz’s times. Second-placed Engstler had been battling to stay in Q1 in the later half of the session but managed to hold on to record his best qualifying result of the season and benefit from a front-row start for the second race.
Tom Coronel lines up in third, having fought to get into Q2 in the closing stages of the session.
Gabriele Tarquini struggled for pace in Q2 but will benefit as a result of his Q1 time which puts him fourth on the grid alongside Darryl O’Young, who once again starred in Q1 for bamboo engineering.
It was a difficult qualifying session for both Tiago Monteiro and Fredy Barth who failed to set a competitive time. The SEAT drivers suffered engine problems during the session and will start from 18th and 19th respectively for Sunday’s races.