Tarquini claims pole at home race

World Touring Car Championship points leader, Gabriele Tarquini, has claimed a timely pole for Sunday’s first race at Imola. Imola is the final European round, before the series flies away to Okayama and Macau for the final two races of the season.

With the championship finely balanced, Tarquini claimed pole position in the second qualifying session, with a time of 1:55.530.

Tarquini currently sits 1 point ahead of fellow SEAT driver, Yvan Muller in the championship standings. The pair will start alongside each other for the first of tomorrow’s two races, with Muller 0.196 seconds adrift with his best effort.

The SEAT Léon TDIs dominate the top ten of the grid, with Rickard Rydell following in 3rd, Tiago Monteiro in 5th and Jordi Gené 8th.

Chevrolet saw three of their Cruzes in the top ten. Rob Huff claimed 4th, Nicola Larini 9th with Alain Menu in 10th.

Menu did not run in the shoot out part of qualifying due his car suffering an oil leak at the end of the first qualifying session.

BMW’s only realistic title challenger, Augusto Farfus, claimed 6th with Andy Priaulx one place behind in 7th.

Both Farfus and Priaulx will be hoping to gain places early on to aid Farfus’ title bid.

In the Yokohama Independent’s Trophy, Stefano D’Aste claimed pole position with 14th overall.