Farfus claims Monza pole position
Augusto Farfus has claimed the first pole position of the season at Monza for BMW, ahead of Chevrolet’s Rob Huff & team mate Andy Priaulx.
The Brazilian won the Nurburgring 24 Hour Race last week for BMW, and comes to Italy ready to put his title challenge back on track, after team mate Andy Priaulx won last time out in Morocco.
Three of the four SR-Sport SEAT’s managed to get into the second part of qualifying, but were unable to hook up a fast enough for any of the drivers to qualify any higher than sixth.
The top SEAT León TDI will be Jordi Gené, with team mate Gabriele Tarquini seventh, and Tiago Monteiro eighth. Tom Coronel had problems early in the session, and was unable to set many laps, ending up 13th.
Chevrolet’s three regular drivers made it into the second session, but didn’t have anything for Farfus, who is running 40kg lighter due to the BMW’s results in the first two rounds.
Rob Huff will start on the front row, whilst Alain Menu and Yvan Muller will start fourth and fifth respectively. The team’s new driver, Leonel Pernía will start 15th.
The top rookie challenge driver is Norbert Michelisz, the Hungarian driver qualifying in eighth place for in the Zengo-Dension SEAT León.
The top independent qualifier is Bamboo Engineering’s Darryl O’Young in the Chevrolet Lacetti, with team mate Harry Vaulkhard the second fastest independent in 14th.
Fabio Fabiani, making his first WTCC appearance for Proteam was last, almost four seconds slower than his nearest rival Andrei Romanov, and very near the 107% qualifiation limit. Romanov will start behind Fabiani however, due to a grid drop earned from an engine change.
