Alain Menu takes pole position in China

Alain Menu has taken his fourth pole position of the season at the Tianma circuit in China, whilst Rob Huff gambled and won in a wet first qualifying segment to take provisional pole position for the reversed grid race two.

In the damp first qualifying session, the times tumbled as the conditions dried throughout. Charles Ng was the first casualty in the Engstler Motorsport BMW 320 TC, sliding out at Turn 1 less than five minutes into the session which brought out the red flag, and the Hong Kong driver will start last for both races.

As the session resumed, the times continued to improve dramatically with the lap times eventually getting to the 1:06s seen in free practice.

With one minute to go, all three of the works Chevrolets were outside of the crucial top ten which go through to Q2. Rob Huff was the first to complete his final lap, only going eighth fastest, but with Robert Dahlgren unable to improve in the Volvo, the only other improvements then came from Huff’s Chevrolet team-mates, with Menu going third quickest and Yvan Muller seventh to drop Huff down into the vital tenth position, which draws provisional pole for race two.

Huff will therefore start race two from pole position with Gabriele Tarquini alongside for the standing start and Fredy Barth and Yvan Muller behind on row two.

In Q2, where the grid for race one is set, the Chevrolets upped their pace into the 1:05s, but a quick lap from Colin Turkington in the Wiechers-Sport/WSR BMW saw the 2009 British Touring Car Champion snatch provisional pole position on his first run. Rob Huff and Alain Menu went out to better their times, securing the front row for Chevrolet with Menu now equalling the number of pole positions taken this year with Yvan Muller, but a mistake from Muller on his final lap saw the Frenchman only qualify in seventh place for the first race.

Turkington will lead off row two as the top classified independent driver with Norbert Michelisz alongside in the Zengö Motorsport BMW 320 TC. Gabriele Tarquini will start fifth in the SUNRED León and Tom Coronel’s ROAL Motorsport BMW sixth.

Fredy Barth qualified tenth but will drop five places because of an engine change, which will promote independents’ trophy leader Kristian Poulsen into tenth place for race one, whilst Barth will provisionally start from his best grid position of the season with third in race two.

Qualifying was a disaster for Volvo Polestar Racing, with Robert Dahlgren only 13th fastest as the circuit dried. It was also a tough session for independent Chevrolet team Bamboo Engineering, with Darryl O’Young and Yukinori Taniguchi qualifying in 18th and 19th place, and leading independents’ title battlers Franz Engstler and Michel Nykjaer (SUNRED) starting down in 16th and 17th positions for both races.

With Charles Ng not setting a competitive time in his five minutes of qualifying, and Philip Ma and Fabio Fabiani setting times outside of the 107% mark in their normally aspirated BMW 320sis of Proteam and Engstler Motorsport respectively, all three will have to apply to the stewards for permission to start the race.

Race one gets underway at 14:55 local time on Sunday (7:55 CET) with race two immediately afterwards.