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Michelisz edges Dudukalo and Tarquini to secure first WTCC pole at Slovakia Ring

Norbert Michelisz lived up to his billing as 'Hungarian Sportsman of the Year,' as voted for by his country's press, by achieving a shock maiden World Touring Car pole position at the series' inaugural visit to the Slovakia Ring

The Zengo Motorsport racer gained a useful slipstream from championship leader Yvan Muller at the completion of his 2m12.990s pole lap, to the delight of a significant number of Hungarian fans.

Lukoil Racing's Alesksei Dudukalo also achieved his best WTCC qualifying result in second, to complete an unusual front row for Sunday's opening race.

"This was a perfect day for me," said Michelisz. "For our team, a pole is almost as good as a race victory. I was expecting a headwind, so I was looking for someone to follow, and in the end I think the slipstream from Muller helped gain me around a tenth of second - perhaps that was enough to achieve pole."

Dudukalo praised the generosity of team-mate Garbriele Tarquini for sharing his racing lines. But the Russian completed an excellent lap to eclipse his "teacher," who lines up in third.

"I have to thank Gabriele for showing me the way," said Dudukalo, who was 0.086s shy of Michelisz's pole. "I made a small mistake on my best lap when I used too much kerb at the exit of Turn 1 and got a little sideways. It cost me around 0.2s, but I'm really happy."

Tarquini's performance follows a disrupted start to his Slovakian weekend. The Monza polesitter suffered a broken fuel pump and waste-gate control in practice, but the Italian played down power-steering gremlins that arose in qualifying.

"It is really unusual for there to be no blue cars among the top three," commented Tarquini on the absence of the RML Chevrolet drivers from the post-qualifying press conference. "I am not sure what happened to them, but I am sure they will come back strongly in the race."

Arena's James Nash continued his practice form to take fourth. Team-mate Tom Chilton's Ford Focus also progressed into the second qualifying session, reserved for the fastest 12 Q1 runners, despite completing just four flying laps during a troubled practice.

Portuguese Tiago Monteiro received a useful tow from Tuenti Racing team-mate Pepe Oriola to secure fifth place, ahead of fastest RML Chevrolet runner Yvan Muller.

The Chevrolets had appeared competitive in the 20 minute Q1 session, occupying three of the top five positions. Briton Rob Huff took an eventual seventh in his Cruze, ahead of Q1 pacesetter Oriola and the third factory Chevrolet of Alain Menu.

The combination of a late improvement in Q1 by Wiechers-Sport BMW Independent runner Stefano D'Aste and a red flag with 12s left on clocks resulted in Tom Coronel being bumped out of the all-important top 12.

The ROAL Motorsport driver had earlier received a black and orange flag when the left rear door of his BMW worked open.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car               Time        Gap
 1.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW              2m13.301s
 2.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT            2m13.540s   + 0.239s
 3.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT            2m13.621s   + 0.320s
 4.  James Nash            Arena Ford             2m13.725s   + 0.424s
 5.  Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT            2m13.790s   + 0.489s
 6.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet              2m13.975s   + 0.674s
 7.  Robert Huff           Chevrolet              2m14.030s   + 0.729s
 8.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT            2m14.148s   + 0.847s
 9.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet              2m14.166s   + 0.865s
10.  Stefano D'Aste        Wiechers BMW           2m14.331s   + 1.030s
11.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford             2m14.414s   + 1.113s
12.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW               2m14.447s   + 1.146s
13.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW               2m14.490s   + 1.189s
14.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW           2m14.676s   + 1.375s
15.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW            2m14.823s   + 1.522s
16.  Darryl O'Young        Special Tuning SEAT    2m14.856s   + 1.555s
17.  Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet       2m15.039s   + 1.738s
18.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet       2m15.756s   + 2.455s
19.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW           2m16.129s   + 2.828s
20.  Gabor Weber           Zengo BMW              2m16.536s   + 3.235s
21.  Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT

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