Qualifying: Seat trio dominate

SEAT drivers dominated the qualifying session for the FIA WTCC’s eighth race meeting at Oschersleben.

Gabriele Tarquini signed a last gasp pole position, beating team-mate Yvan Muller and Independent Roberto Colciago by 11 and 14 thousandths of a second respectively.

BMW’s fastest driver was Jörg Müller who set the fourth fastest lap on his home track, just ahead of Chevrolet’s Alain Menu and of his own team-mate Augusto Farfus. Again the session was incredibly close, with 21 cars qualified within the same second.

Andy Priaulx was the first man to set a credible provisional pole, completing a lap in 1:37.061 nine minutes into the session. A few moments later James Thompson and Jörg Müller swoopped together on the finish line: the Briton set a provisional pole at 1:36.620, with the German second fastest with a time of 1:36.635.

Tiago Monteiro promoted himself to third with a lap in 1:36.657, but immediately afterwards Yvan Muller drove his turbo-diesel SEAT to a new provisional pole at 1:36.302.

Jörg Müller and Farfus responded to the Frenchman with laps in 1:36.353 and 1:36.558 which were good for second and third for the time being.

Then the session was disrupted by the red flag with only six minutes remaining, after Michel Jourdain’s SEAT hit the tyres at Turn nine

When qualifying resumed many drivers tried a last shot to the pole. Pierre-Yves Corthals set the seventh fastest time and best of the Independents, but he was soon beaten by Colciago’s 1:36.305 that provisionally placed the SEAT Sport Italia’s man in second.

Eventually Tarquini settled the matter for good, clocking a 1:36.291 to claim his first pole position of the season and the second consecutive for SEAT after Tiago Monteiro’s in Sweden.