RML’s Tom Chilton scored his first-ever pole position in the World Touring Car Championship at the Sonoma Raceway in the USA with a last-gasp effort to beat team-mate Yvan Muller to pole.
Click here for the full qualifying results.
Chilton had been second fastest after the first run in Q2, having earlier been third fastest in Q1 behind Muller and Norbert Michelisz. However in the dying seconds of Q2 the Brit produced a perfect lap to deny Muller, with the Frenchman having also gone faster on his final flying run.
Honda’s Tiago Monteiro scored his best qualifying result since the Slovakiaring back in April, ahead of Tuenti Racing’s Pepe Oriola in fourth.
The bamboo-engineering Chevrolet’s will occupy the third row of the grid, with Alex MacDowall gaining the edge on team-mate James Nash in a scorching hot qualifying session which saw temperatures of 35 degrees celcius.
Zengő Motorsport’s Michelisz will start race one from seventh, despite having shown pace to be in contention for pole throughout the day. Joining the Hunarian on the fourth row of the grid will be Münnich Motorsport’s Rob Huff.
Nika Racing’s Michel Nykjær made his first appearance inside the top ten this weekend and qualified in ninth. Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini completed the top ten and takes pole position for race two. The Italian left it late to go for a fast lap in Q2, crucially making a mistake at turn one on his only flying lap to cost him a better grid position for race one.
Mehid Bennani and Marc Basseng qualified in 11th and 12th, missing out on the reverse-grid for race two.
A disappointed Tom Coronel only just missed out on entry into Q2, with a late lap by Basseng in the closing seconds denying the ROAL Motorsport driver for the second meeting in a row. Coronel had earlier mis-timed his pitlane exit, leaving him unable to reach the finish line before the chequered flag was flown to signal the end of Q1.
Several drivers suffered spins and off-track excursions during Q1, including polesitter Chilton who suffered a half-spin into the turn two dirt after losing his car on the exit of turn one. MacDowall and Fernando Monje also made mistakes during the 20-minute session.
Morning warm-up from Sonoma takes place at 08:30 PDT on Sunday 8th September, whilst Round 17 is at 11:50 PDT (19:50 BST; 20:50 CEST).