Rydell takes pole position at Imola

"I've been struggling a little bit in qualifying this year," Rydell said. "In 2006 I had the best average in qualifying out of all the cars, but this year we have been struggling to get the set-up right. I'm really pleased, I think we did a good job."

The SEAT driver's 1:54.761 was enough to edge out teammate and championship leader Yvan Muller by just 0.067, but any disappointment that the Frenchman may have felt at missing pole was offset by the fact that both of his main title rivals will start several rows behind him. Gabriele Tarquini qualified sixth and Andy Priaulx ended up tenth.

Chevrolet achieved lock-out of the second row when Alain Menu, in his special 'art car'-liveried Lacetti, just got the edge over Rob Huff, while James Thompson was again quick in the N.Technology Honda and will start fifth.

Just two tenths of a second covered the five fastest cars and the tightness of the competition was not lost on Menu.

"It's great for Rickard that he got the pole," he said. "But for sure it could have also been Yvan, or me, or even Rob. So I think it's going to be interesting tomorrow."

Independent Trophy points leader Sergio Hernandez claimed pole in the privateer class.

Pos Driver                 Car           Time         Gap    
 1. Rickard Rydell         SEAT          1:54.761
 2. Yvan Muller            SEAT          1:54.828  +0.067
 3. Alain Menu             Chevrolet     1:54.862  +0.101
 4. Robert Huff            Chevrolet     1:54.901  +0.140
 5. James Thompson         Honda         1:54.954  +0.193
 6. Gabriele Tarquini      SEAT          1:55.046  +0.285
 7. Nicola Larini          Chevrolet     1:55.213  +0.452
 8. Jorg Muller            BMW           1:55.226  +0.465
 9. Augusto Farfus         BMW           1:55.287  +0.526
10. Andy Priaulx           BMW           1:55.446  +0.685
11. Tiago Monteiro         SEAT          1:55.486  +0.725
12. Alex Zanardi           BMW           1:55.591  +0.830
13. Jordi Gene             SEAT          1:55.604  +0.843
14. Sergio Hernandez       BMW           1:55.619  +0.858
15. Felix Porteiro         BMW           1:55.656  +0.895
16. Pierre-Yves Corthals   SEAT          1:55.679  +0.918
17. Stefano d'Aste         BMW           1:55.777  +1.016
18. Franz Engstler         BMW           1:56.000  +1.239
19. Tom Coronel            SEAT          1:56.321  +1.560
20. Andrey Romanov         BMW           1:57.290  +2.529
21. Ibrahim Okyay          BMW           1:57.974  +3.213
22. Kirill Ladygin         Lada          1:58.874  +4.113
23. George Tanev           BMW           1:58.949  +4.188
24. Jaap van Lagen         Lada          1:59.399  +4.638
25. Viktor Shapovalov      Lada          1:59.634  +4.873