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Peter Rikli leads Honda 1-2 in ETCC qualifying at Monza

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Swiss driver Peter Rikli has claimed pole position for the first round of the European Touring Car Cup at Monza, leading new team-mate Christjohannes Schreiber by three-tenths of a second, with the two Civics the only cars to break the two-minute barrier.

Rikli’s main challenge early in the session came from Krenek SEAT driver Petr Fulín, but the 2016 championship runner-up had his best lap time disallowed for a track limits infringement, and was only able to improve to qualify in third position.

Zsolt Szabo was fourth fastest in the best-placed of Zengo’s two SEAT Leóns, leading team-mate Norbert Nagy, who was just over a second behind Nagy’s time.

Plamen Kralev was sixth fastest in the lone Audi RS 3 LMS in the field, with the four SEATs of Igor Stefanovki, Fabio Mota, Andrreas Pfister and Mladen Lalusic completing the top ten, with just ten cars running with Annet Gyorhy’s Zengo SEAT unable to take part.

The first race is scheduled for 9:00 CET on Sunday,