Thompson takes first Alfa Romeo pole
James Thompson has given Alfa Romeo’s N.technology their first pole of the season. In fact, the last time the team were on pole was at Valencia last year. Thompson’s time of 1:43.954 was set halfway into the session and beat Yvan Muller of SEAT Sport into 2nd place by an astonishing one thousandth of a second. Andy Priaulx posted his best time (1.44.114) on the last lap to line up third on the grid for BMW, making it three manufacturers in the top three.
Jordi Gené and Michel Jourdain qualified fourth and fifth respectively for SEAT Sport’s home race; this was the Mexican’s best performance so far. Chevrolet also had a successful session with all three drivers making the top nine. Nicola Larini’s time of 1:44.261 placed him 6th while Alain Menu and Robert Huff will line up 8th and 9th. It was Augusto Farfus of BMW Germany who split the trio on his penultimate lap.
The top ten was rounded up by independent SEAT Sport Italia man Roberto Colciago who was 0.398 off pole position pace.
The other Spanish drivers qualified 13th Félix Porteiro, 16th Sergio Hernández and 23rd María De Villota. The top twenty were covered by just one second.
