Photo: WTCC Media

Rob Huff takes third consecutive pole at Macau

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Rob Huff has secured pole position for the final round of the season at Macau, his third at the circuit and his first since July this season. He will start ahead of team-mate and points leader Yvan Muller, and will also start four places ahead in race two.

In the first qualifying session, where the top ten are reversed to set the second races grid, Yvan Muller appeared to take a rather conservative strategy, setting a time of 2:33.353, which kept him on top for most of the session. Late improvements by Robert Dahlgren’s Volvo and Darryl O’Young’s Chevrolet Cruze saw Muller dropped to third, which will put him provisionally eighth on the grid for the second race.

Rob Huff meanwhile ended up eighth in the session, which puts him third on the grid for race two, where he’ll start behind Franz Engstler’s BMW and Michel Nykjaer’s SR León on the grid.

The third RML Chevrolet of Alain Menu was in 13th place, whilst on his second qualifying he had contact with the SR León of André Couto. The contact caused a puncture on the front-right of Menu’s Cruze, and the Swiss driver was unable to improve his position, and will start there for both races.

In Q2, Robert Dahlgren had a heavy off at the Solitude Esses, which caused major damage to the front of the Volvo C30. Dahlgren also injured his right arm in the incident, and would take no further part in qualifying.

When the session restarted after an extended red flag period, Rob Huff set the quickest time of the weekend with a lap of 2:31.868. Muller was second quickest, whilst both cars went out for another run. Though Muller improved his time, Huff set the benchmark even higher, setting a time of 2:30.881 to take his third consecutive pole position for the Guia Race.

Gabriele Tarquini was third quickest in the SR León, with Darryl O’Young taking his season’s best result with fourth on the grid in the Bamboo Chevrolet Cruze, and also takes the independents’ pole.

The BMWs of Tom Coronel and Mehdi Bennani will line-up on row three, with local driver André Couto securing seventh on the grid ahead of the best placed of the independents’ title runners, Michel Nykjaer.

Race 1 is at 10:45 local time on Sunday (2:45am GMT).