Photo: WTCC Media

Yvan Muller on pole ahead of Tarquini in Valencia

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Reigning WTCC champion Yvan Muller has taken pole position in Spain ahead of Gabriele Tarquini, with Tom Coronel making it three different marques in the top three positions.

The Frenchman was briefly fastest of all in the first part of qualifying, before the stewards disallowed his time after short-cutting the first corner. This saw Muller down in 12th and under threat of not making it into Q2, before a second lap of 1:43.458 put him seventh and was enough to ensure he was safely into Q2.

“I did a good lap time with 42.5, I was pleased for that I thought easy for the top 12…and then my engineer told me this lap is cancelled so we have to go again,” said Muller.

Gabriele Tarquini was the fastest driver in Q1 with a time of 1:42.933, and along with Alain Menu was one of the the only two drivers in Q2 to break the 1:43 barrier.

In Q2, Yvan Muller’s first lap was a 1:42.352, which would have been enough to grab pole on its own before he improved even more on his second run. Gabriele Tarquini went wide on his second run and had to rely on his first time in the session which was good enough for second in the Lukoil Racing Team SEAT, whilst Tom Coronel’s time was saw him qualifyin in third in the ROAL BMW.

“(In Q2 my) first lap was 42.3, two-tenths ahead of Gabriele but because Gabriele is capable of anything I said okay, my second lap will need to be even better,” said Muller.

Looking ahead to tomorrow, Muller added:
“The race will be tough, it will be warm and Tom (Coronel) is not far behind and at the end of the race he will be fast.”

Pepe Oriola was the fastest of the independents’ trophy runners in fourth and will start race one ahead of Chevrolet’s Rob Huff, whilst Alain Menu, who only had time to set one lap at the end of Q2 will start ninth.

Stefano D’Aste will start from pole for race two after setting the tenth fastest time.

There was post qualifying drama for Aleksei Dudukalo, whose SEAT León WTCC caught fire in parc ferme and was aided by mechanics from Arena Motorsport who rushed to put out the fire on the rear-right of the car.