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Y Muller on pole at wet Valencia

Yvan Muller claimed his second World Touring Car Championship pole position with a virtuoso display in wet conditions at Valencia

The SEAT Leon TDI driver, who had struggled to match the pace of the leading SEATs and BMWs during free practice, took pole position with his first flying lap of the session.

Muller stayed on top of the timesheets throughout, with teammate Gabriele Tarquini putting in a last-gasp effort to snatch second away from Chevrolet's Alain Menu.

Rob Huff made it two Chevrolets in the top four with fourth place, comfortably ahead of the third SEAT diesel of Jordi Gene.

Reigning champion Andy Priaulx put in his best qualifying performance of the season to end the session as the best BMW in sixth, just in front of Schnitzer Motorsport pairing Jorg Muller and Augusto Farfus.

Alex Zanardi followed them in the ROAL Engineering BMW, one place ahead of the slowest Chevy of Nicola Larini.

N.Technology Honda Accord Euro R driver James Thompson took 12th on the grid despite never having driven the car in the wet before, ending the session just over one tenth off championship leader Rickard Rydell's SEAT.

In the Independents' Trophy, Stefano d'Aste took pole ahead of Proteam BMW team-mate Sergio Hernandez.

Pos  Driver                Car                  Time
 1.  Yvan Muller           SEAT Leon TDI        1:58.816
 2.  Gabriele Tarquini     SEAT Leon TDI        1:59.514  + 0.698
 3.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet Lacetti    1:59.610  + 0.794
 4.  Robert Huff           Chevrolet Lacetti    1:59.624  + 0.808
 5.  Jordi Gene            SEAT Leon TDI        1:59.902  + 1.086
 6.  Andy Priaulx          BMW 320si            1:59.941  + 1.125
 7.  Jorg Muller           BMW 320si            2:00.043  + 1.227
 8.  Augusto Farfus        BMW 320si            2:00.074  + 1.258
 9.  Alessandro Zanardi    BMW 320si            2:00.211  + 1.395
10.  Nicola Larini         Chevrolet Lacetti    2:00.381  + 1.565
11.  Rickard Rydell        SEAT Leon TDI        2:00.407  + 1.591
12.  James Thompson        Honda Accord Euro R  2:00.543  + 1.727
13.  Felix Porteiro        BMW 320si            2:00.956  + 2.140
14.  Stefano D'Aste        BMW 320si            2:01.062  + 2.246
15.  Sergio Hernandez      BMW 320si            2:01.110  + 2.294
16.  Pierre-Yves Corthals  SEAT Leon            2:01.366  + 2.550
17.  Tiago Monteiro        SEAT Leon TDI        2:01.743  + 2.927
18.  Jose Perez-Aicart     SEAT Leon            2:01.821  + 3.005
19.  Tom Coronel           SEAT Leon            2:02.332  + 3.516
20.  Franz Engstler        BMW 320si            2:03.350  + 4.534
21.  Andrei Romanov        BMW 320si            2:04.394  + 5.578
22.  Jaap Van Lagen        Lada 110             2:04.796  + 5.980
23.  Olivier Tielemans     BMW 320si            2:05.774  + 6.958
24.  Alexander Lvov        Honda Accord Euro R  2:07.463  + 8.647
25.  Ibrahim Okyay         BMW 320si            2:13.114  + 14.298
26.  Andrey Smetsky        Honda Accord Euro R  2:13.139  + 14.323
27.  Viktor Shapovalov     Lada 110

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