Alain Menu and Rob Huff take World Touring Car poles in China

Menu waited until late in the session to produce his best lap of 1m05.555s, which proved enough to keep him ahead of team-mate Rob Huff, who fell 0.145 seconds short.

But in many regards it was Huff who was the happier at the end of the session; the Briton's title hopes having received a double boost when he secured pole for the reversed grid race in a nailbiting opening phase of qualifying, and then having current championship leader and fellow Chevrolet driver Yvan Muller run off the track on his final flying lap, leaving the Frenchman to start from seventh on a circuit that offers few opportunities to overtake.

Times changed constantly through both phases of qualifying as what started as a wet track gradually formed a dry line, handing an increasing advantage to those who had opted for a dry set-up. One of the casualties was Robert Dahlgren, who ended up 13th after struggling with a wet set-up on his Polestar Vovlo.

Colin Turkington was third-quickest in a Wiechers-Sport BMW, just edging out the similar Zengo car of Norbert Michelisz, with Gabriele Tarquini (SUNRED SEAT) and Tom Coronel (ROAL BMW) just behind them.

A trio of SUNRED SEAT entries in the form of Tiago Monteiro, Pepe Oriola and Fredy Barth will start just behind Muller to round out the top 10 for race one.

Race one grid:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time       Gap
 1.  Alain Menu          Chevrolet         1m05.555s
 2.  Rob Huff            Chevrolet         1m05.700s  + 0.145s
 3.  Colin Turkington    Wiechers BMW      1m05.712s  + 0.157s
 4.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo BMW         1m05.738s  + 0.183s
 5.  Gabriele Tarquini   SUNRED SEAT       1m05.743s  + 0.188s
 6.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW          1m05.803s  + 0.248s
 7.  Yvan Muller         Chevrolet         1m05.920s  + 0.365s
 8.  Tiago Monteiro      SUNRED SEAT       1m05.922s  + 0.367s
 9.  Pepe Oriola         SUNRED SEAT       1m06.591s  + 1.036s
10.  Fredy Barth         SUNRED SEAT       1m06.741s  + 1.186s
11.  Kristian Poulsen    Engstler BMW      1m07.555s  Q1
12.  Javier Villa        Proteam BMW       1m07.710s  Q1
13.  Robert Dahlgren     Polestar Volvo    1m07.770s  Q1
14.  Aleksei Dudukalo    SUNRED SEAT       1m07.771s  Q1
15.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW       1m07.836s  Q1
16.  Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW      1m08.004s  Q1
17.  Michel Nykjaer      SUNRED SEAT       1m08.069s  Q1
18.  Darryl O'Young      Bamboo Chevrolet  1m08.317s  Q1
19.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Bamboo Chevrolet  1m09.274s  Q1
20.  Fabio Fabiani       Engstler BMW      1m12.641s  Q1
21.  Philip Ma           Proteam BMW       1m14.194s  Q1
22.  Charles Ng          KK BMW            1m14.947s  Q1

Race two grid:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car
 1.  Rob Huff            Chevrolet
 2.  Gabriele Tarquini   SUNRED SEAT
 3.  Fredy Barth         SUNRED SEAT
 4.  Yvan Muller         Chevrolet
 5.  Tiago Monteiro      SUNRED SEAT
 6.  Pepe Oriola         SUNRED SEAT
 7.  Colin Turkington    Wiechers BMW
 8.  Alain Menu          Chevrolet
 9.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo BMW
10.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW
11.  Kristian Poulsen    Engstler BMW
12.  Javier Villa        Proteam BMW
13.  Robert Dahlgren     Polestar Volvo
14.  Aleksei Dudukalo    SUNRED SEAT
15.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW
16.  Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW
17.  Michel Nykjaer      SUNRED SEAT
18.  Darryl O'Young      Bamboo Chevrolet
19.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Bamboo Chevrolet
20.  Fabio Fabiani       Engstler BMW
21.  Philip Ma           Proteam BMW
22.  Charles Ng          KK BMW

Race one grid - Q2 top 10, Q1 from 11th
Race two grid - Q1 top 10 reversed, Q1 order from 11th