ROUNDS 9 & 10 - BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC
QUALIFYING REPORT
ZANARDI SCORES FIRST POLE IN WTCC
In a fiercely fought session BMW Team Italy-Spain's Alessandro
Zanardi clocked the fastest lap in the dying seconds to take
his first pole position in the championship. During the session
he, Alain Menu and Robert Huff continually fought for pole,
until the Italian came out on top. He beat the lap record,
set in 2004 by Rickard Rydell, by a second as he dipped below
the two minutes and nine seconds with 2:08.913.
He took the pole away from Chevrolet's Alain Menu who will
start alongside him on the grid, one tenth behind him in time.
Zanardi's team mate Félix Porteiro took third position
pushing Chevrolet's Robert Huff down into fourth. Less than
two tenths of a second covered the top four drivers as this
proved to be a strong session for BMW Team Italy-Spain and
Chevrolet.
Gabriele Tarquini was the only SEAT driver to challenge for
the top spot during the session. Eventually he placed fifth,
over half a second behind the leader, as the SEAT TDI cars
are struggling for speed on this track. Tiago Monteiro followed
him into sixth, and James Thompson pushed his car up into
seventh place. Thompson found speed in the Honda and seemed
to have the potential to fight for the pole throughout the
session.
Pau winners Augusto Farfus and Andy Priaulx struggled for
pace and they will begin the first race in eighth and tenth,
sandwiching Jordi Gené's SEAT.
Farfus' team mate Jörg Muller had more serious problems
as he put his BMW in the gravel trap at Turn 7 on his fourth
timed lap, which caused the session to be red flagged for
a few minutes. His cars towed out of the gravel, the German
could not rejoin.
Sergio Hernández qualified in thirteenth overall and
on pole position for the Independents' class, ahead of Pierre
Yves Corthals and Franz Engstler with a time of 2:10.3541.
Young local driver Michal Matejovský made a promising
debut in the championship placing his SUNRED SEAT León
fourth in the class.
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