Chevrolet’s Yvan Muller took pole position for the first World Touring Car Championship race at Oschersleben tomorrow, as Volvo driver Robert Dahlgren secured a career-best second alongside him.
Qualifying for Race 1 – Muller on pole once again.
Consistently quickest throught the Q2 qualifying session, Muller went to the top of the timesheets on his very first attempt. When other drivers went faster, Muller seemd able to put in an even quicker lap to usurp the rest.
Dahlgren, who had been on the pace throughout the session, looked likely to take a shock pole position until the Frenchman once again went faster – leaving the Swede more than half a second adrift of the Frenchman.
Qualifying in third was current points leader Rob Huff, who was within a tenth of a second of the front row of the grid.
Gabriele Tarquini struggled to get on terms with the leading trio and qualified in fourth, 8 tenths of a second off Muller’s pole time.
Fifth fastest was Tom Coronel and the ROAL Motorsport BMW driver will have to contend with starting alongside the third works Chevrolet of Alain Menu, who qualified sixth.
Norbert Michelisz was seventh, with Michel Nykjaer alongside him on the fourth row of the grid. Completing the top then were Franz Engstler and Tiago Monteiro in ninth and tenth respectively.
Qualifying for Race 2 – Engstler benefits from pole.
As usual in the WTCC, qualifying was a closely-fought affair, with several drivers almost not making it into the Q2 session, and therefore the potential to in the reverse top-ten for race two.
Taking pole position for race two was Franz Engstler who nipped into the top ten in the dying minutes of the session. He will have Monteiro starting alongside him on the front row after the Portugese slipped down the order towards the end of the session.
Michelisz set a quick lap late in the session to get himself inside the top ten and he will start from third for the second race in Germany. Nykjaer, by virtue of having gone seventh fastest, will start from fourth.
This time it will be alain Menu starting as the top Chevrolet driver in fifth, with former champion Tarquini alongside.
Robert Huff and Tom Coronel share the fourth row of the grid in seventh and eighth – the current points leader will no doubt be pleased to start ahead of his chief rival Muller, who starts from ninth.
The rapid Dahlgren may perhaps have been ‘too rapid’ in Q1 – his fastest time means that he will start from tenth.