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Yvan Muller beats Alain Menu to Curitiba World Touring Car Championship pole in all-Chevrolet battle

World Touring Car Championship points leader Yvan Muller claimed his third pole position of the season as Chevrolet dominated qualifying for round eight of the series at Curitiba

Fastest in both free practice sessions, the reigning world champion was prevented from having a comfortable run to pole owing to the stiff challenge offered by factory Chevrolet team-mate Alain Menu.

In the decisive second qualifying session, Muller suffered a dramatic oversteer moment on his first flying lap, before regaining his composure to lower his fastest time to 1m22.289s.

"I was focused all weekend on this session," said Muller, "but I knew it was going to be tight. Alain was only around a tenth to two tenths behind after my first attempt in Q1, and then just over a tenth slower again after my second attempt in Q2. I had a really big moment at the last corner in Q2, but I finally got it together."

Muller needed his final lap improvement to stay ahead of Menu. The Swiss was the final car across the line and ended the afternoon just 0.155 seconds shy of pole.

"Yvan did a better job than me," said a slightly subdued Menu. "I am still searching for a good feeling with the car and tyres, but second is a good recovery. I also had some oversteer moments in the quick corners, it is to do with how we set the car up for the slow stuff and I think it will be the same for the race."

In contrast, third-placed Rob Huff reported that he was content with his Cruze's handling, but had been prevented from qualifying higher after encountering trouble in the final sector of his hot lap.

"I have been struggling a little bit this weekend with the braking and turn-in to Turn 1," confessed Huff. "In Q2 I managed to do my best first sector so far, two or three tenths faster than anything else I have done this weekend. Unfortunately, the second sector was average and I lost ground at the end of the lap."

After Chevrolet's announcement three weeks ago that it would withdraw from factory WTCC competition at the end of the season, Huff was pleased with the manufacturer's showing.

"I am disappointed for myself, but I am really pleased for the team that we have five Chevrolets in the top six. After the bad news in the last weeks I really hope this lifts everyone's spirits."

Despite carrying 40kg of success ballast over their customer SEAT and BMW rivals, the RML-run works Chevrolets were joined at the sharp end by the private Bamboo Engineering Cruzes.

Series returnee Michel Nykjaer qualified fourth and took the independents' trophy pole for Bamboo.

"The car is fabulous, so I was hoping to be up at the front," admitted Nykjaer. "It is the same car that I race in Sweden. I went off at Turn 1 on two occasions, but I hope I can put on a good show tomorrow."

Lukoil SEAT racer Gabriele Tarquini took fifth, and prevented a Cruze clean-sweep of the top positions by outqualifying the second Bamboo Cruze of Alex MacDowall.

Darryl O'Young claimed seventh in his Special Tuning SEAT Leon WTCC ahead of Tiago Monteiro's Tuenti Racing Leon 1.6.

Norbert Michelisz's lone Zengo Motorsport BMW will start race two on pole position after qualifying 10th in Q2.

Pos  Driver             Team/Car             Time       Gap
 1.  Yvan Muller        Chevrolet            1m22.289s
 2.  Alain Menu         Chevrolet            1m22.444s  + 0.155s
 3.  Rob Huff           Chevrolet            1m22.592s  + 0.303s
 4.  Michel Nykjaer     Bamboo Chevrolet     1m22.765s  + 0.476s
 5.  Gabriele Tarquini  Lukoil SEAT          1m22.947s  + 0.658s
 6.  Alex MacDowall     Bamboo Chevrolet     1m23.086s  + 0.797s
 7.  Darryl O'Young     Special Tuning SEAT  1m23.366s  + 1.077s
 8.  Tiago Monteiro     Tuenti SEAT          1m23.500s  + 1.211s
 9.  Tom Coronel        ROAL BMW             1m23.516s  + 1.227s
10.  Norbert Michelisz  Zengo BMW            1m23.622s  + 1.333s
11.  Aleksei Dudukalo   Lukoil SEAT          1m23.630s  + 1.341s
12.  Mehdi Bennani      Proteam BMW          1m23.927s  + 1.638s
13.  Alberto Cerqui     ROAL BMW             1m24.293s  Q1
14.  Pepe Oriola        Tuenti SEAT          1m24.360s  Q1
15.  Charles Ng         Engstler BMW         1m24.528s  Q1
16.  Tom Boardman       Special Tuning SEAT  1m24.601s  Q1
17.  Franz Engstler     Engstler BMW         1m24.652s  Q1
18.  Fernando Monje     SUNRED SEAT          1m24.700s  Q1
19.  James Nash         Arena Ford           1m24.902s  Q1
20.  Tom Chilton        Arena Ford           1m24.986s  Q1
21.  Stefano D'Aste     Wiechers BMW         1m25.121s  Q1

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