Tarquini claims pole position at Valencia

The Italian will start first tomorrow ahead of Huff and Muller

By Franck Drui

18 September 2010 - 16:38
Tarquini claims pole position at (…)

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.

Pos. Driver Car Q1 time Q2 time
01 G. Tarquini Seat Leon TDI 1m44.727s 1m44.111s
02 R. Huff Chevrolet Cruze 1m44.937s 1m44.193s
03 Y. Muller Chevrolet Cruze 1m44.922s 1m44.258s
04 A. Menu Chevrolet Cruze 1m44.710s 1m44.439s
05 T. Monteiro Seat Leon TDI 1m44.869s 1m44.468s
06 T. Coronel Seat Leon TDI 1m44.789s 1m44.525s
07 J. Gene Seat Leon TDI 1m44.897s 1m44.773s
08 F. Barth Seat Leon TDI 1m44.604s 1m45.070s
09 A. Farfus BMW 320si 1m44.823s 1m45.205s
10 A. Priaulx BMW 320si 1m45.313s 1m46.416s
---------- ---------- ---------- ----------
11 M. Nykjaer Seat Leon TDI 1m45.339s
12 K. Poulsen BMW 320si 1m45.607s
13 N. Michelisz Seat Leon TDI 1m45.741s
14 M. Carol Seat Leon 1m45.837s
15 D. O’Young Chevrolet Lacetti 1m46.017s
16 S. Hernandez BMW 320si 1m46.116s
17 M. Bennani BMW 320si 1m46.419s
18 F. Engstler BMW 320si 1m46.717s
19 S. D’Aste BMW 320si 1m46.783s
20 Y. Taniguchi Chevrolet Lacetti 1m46.997s
21 A. Romanov BMW 320si 1m47.344s

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