Yvan Muller takes dominant pole, leading an RML 1-2 at Monza

Yvan Muller has taken pole position for the first round of the 2013 FIA World Touring Car Championship in an action packed qualifying session, which saw reigning champion Rob Huff eliminated in the first minute.

The session saw Rob Huff’s Münnich Motorsport SEAT collide with Fredy Barth whilst the cars were jockeying for position to get the all-important tow for qualifying. Huff’s SEAT sustained severe damage to the front-right suspension and couldn’t continue, bringing out the red flag. Huff will therefore start 24th and last for both of tomorrow’s races.

After the session restarted, Yvan Muller was quick to set his mark in the RML Chevrolet, with Nika Racing’s Michel Nykjaer the closest car to him at this point.

Then it also seemed like a total disaster for Lada, as Aleksei Dudukalo locked up under-braking into the first chicane and collided with team-mate James Thompson. Dudukalo was out on the spot whilst Thompson dragged a heavily damaged Lada Granta back to the pits. Thompson’s time was still good enough to make Q2 despite not taking part in the remainder of the session.

Along with Huff, the other big names to miss out on Q2 included Tom Coronel in the ROAL Motorsport BMW and Tiago Monteiro in the Honda.

Norbert Michelisz struggled throughout the session and qualified down in 21st.

At the end of the session there was more drama as René Münnich was spun out with contact from Tarquini’s Honda.

In Q2, Yvan Muller blasted the lap record into history with a time of 1:56.486, over 1.5 seconds faster than last year’s lap record by Tarquini, whilst hasty repairs to Thompson’s Lada saw the British driver head out and set a time good enough for ninth on the grid, and secured a front-row start in the reversed grid race two.

The closest driver to Muller was his new team-mate Tom Chilton. The 26-year-old therefore takes his career best qualifying with second on the grid in his first race with the RML Chevrolet Cruze.

Alex MacDowall took the independents’ class pole, 1.2 seconds down on Muller’s time. The 22-year-old believes more was possible, if Gabriele Tarquini hadn’t got in the mix and lost MacDowall the opportunity of getting a tow from team-mate Nash.

Tarquini received a warning from the stewards after hitting the rear of Nash’s car in the session as he was lining up for a slipstream. The Italian wound up fifth, behind Pepe Oriola’s Tuenti Racing SEAT.

“The track has improved compared to last year, and maybe I didn’t test during the winter but that was good for me,” explained Muller to TouringCarTimes in respect of his record pole position. “In one way it’s good and one way it’s not good…I have a fresh mind-set, so it’s a good thing”

With a last minute programme, Muller’s just set a few laps at Snetterton in the UK ahead of this season, and admits he didn’t expect to be so strong this weekend.
“Right now we still need a bit more (testing time), I’d like to test a bit during the year. And honestly I’m very surprised of the level of the Honda, they tested so much during the winter and I’m very surprised of their speed.

“(But) we will not test and they will progress, their margin to progress is big whilst we will stay at this level.”.