Late rain helps Tarquini to Zolder pole

The reigning world champion was fastest on the first runs in the 10-minute Q2 shootout. Rain less than five minutes from the end prevented anyone from attempting to improve their time and left Tarquini on top.

Jordi Gene will start alongside his team-mate on the front row, with the Chevrolets of Alain Menu and Yvan Muller on row two.

Rob Huff completes a trio of Cruzes in fifth ahead of Norbert Michelisz's SEAT. The Leons of Fredy Barth and Tiago Monteiro will occupy row five.

BMW was hurt most by the rain. The rear-wheel drive cars can't take two new tyres at a time, so only make one run in Q2 to SEAT and Chevrolet's two. Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus were just beginning their hot laps when the rain started, so their times were ruined.

In Q1, the best times were saved until the end. Menu was quickest, with Monteiro, Priaulx, Tarquini, Michelisz and Farfus all leaving it late to launch themselves into Q2.

Huff was also fortunate to hang in there, pitting after setting the fifth fastest time inside the last two minutes but quickly sliding down to 10th.

Tom Coronel was the first driver to miss out, even though he'd been firmly inside the top six for much of the session.

Belgian Pierre-Yves Corthals was the quickest of the independents in 13th, while the other local driver making a one-off outing on home soil, Vincent Radermecker, will start 16th.

Pos Driver                  Car          Q1           Q2
 1. Gabriele Tarquini       SEAT         1m38.999s    1m38.265s
 2. Jordi Gene              SEAT         1m39.061s    1m38.430s
 3. Alain Menu              Chevrolet    1m38.840s    1m38.494s
 4. Yvan Muller             Chevrolet    1m39.037s    1m38.584s
 5. Rob Huff                Chevrolet    1m39.187s    1m38.779s
 6. Norbert Michelisz       SEAT         1m39.072s    1m39.072s
 7. Fredy Barth             SEAT         1m39.151s    1m39.173s
 8. Tiago Monteiro          SEAT         1m38.875s    1m39.255s
 9. Andy Priaulx            BMW          1m39.030s    1m42.856s
10. Augusto Farfus          BMW          1m39.112s    1m52.493s
11. Tom Coronel             SEAT         1m39.456s
12. Michel Nykjaer          SEAT         1m39.472s
13. Pierre-Yves Corthals    SEAT         1m39.610s
14. Darryl O'Young          Chevrolet    1m39.824s
15. Kristian Poulsen        BMW          1m39.863s
16. Vincent Radermecker     Chevrolet    1m40.003s
17. Franz Engstler          BMW          1m40.058s
18. Sergio Hernandez        BMW          1m40.278s
19. Stefano D'Aste          BMW          1m40.287s
20. Harry Vaulkhard         Chevrolet    1m40.395s
21. Mehdi Bennani           BMW          1m40.738s
22. Andrey Romanov          BMW          1m42.934s