Yvan Muller headed an RML 1-2 to take the first pole position of the 2013 World Touring Car Championship season, with team-mate Tom Chilton 2nd in a highly eventful qualifying session.
Click here for the full Round 1/2 Qualifying results.
The qualifying session had to be red-flagged before anyone had even set a competitive time after reigning champion Rob Huff drove into the back of Fredy Barth on their out lap. Huff was immediately forced out of the session with damage to his front-right and, after stopping on the circuit, brought out the red flags.
When the session resumed the drivers could only manage one flying lap before LADA’s Aleksei Dudukalo got his braking into the chicane wrong and T-boned the side of team-mate James Thompson. Dudukalo was out on the spot, whilst Thompson, who had set a time good enough for Q2, limped back to the pits for repairs.
The Chevrolet domination conituned in Q1, as Muller, Chilton, Michel Nykjær and Alex MacDowall made it a 1-2-3-4 for the marque, with James Nash not far behind in sixth.
Pepe Oriola was the top non-Chevrolet driver in Q1, posting the fifth fastest time more than one and a half seconds off Muller’s pace.
High profile names who didn’t make the Q2 cut included Tiago Monteiro, who could only manage 15th, and Norbert Michelisz, who spent much of the session in the pits with brake problems and could therefore only manage 21st with a single flying lap.
Q2 began in similar fashion to Q1, with the Chevrolets rising to the top. Muller, Chilton and MacDowall remained at the top throughout, whilst Oriola and Gabriele Tarquini were fourth and fifth fastest. Works Honda driver Tarquini also had far from an incident-filled session, as he tapped René Münnich into the barriers at the Parabolica in Q1. Tarquini also experienced brake issues during the session.
Nash and Nykjær will start from sixth and seventh for Sunday’s first race. Nash spent much of the session with MacDowall as the duo attempted to tow each other in a system that never really worked for the young Brits.
Despite the problems with Huff and Münnich, Münnich Motorsport managed to get Marc Basseng into the top ten in Q2, where he qualified in eighth.
James Thompson managed a handful of laps after rapid repairs by his LADA team to go ninth, with Darryl O’Young tenth. The duo will start race two on Sunday from the front row as a result.
Round 1 of the 2013 FIA WTCC takes place at 15:05 CET (14:05 GMT) on Sunday.