Muller Takes Crucial Pole
Yvan Muller proved that Vauxhall are back in the hunt for the British Touring Car Championship title after he took a crucial pole position at a wet Mondello Park on Saturday
With conditions being made difficult by rain showers prior to the start of the session, Muller came through the interruptions of three red flags to take the top spot on the grid with his main title rivals struggling.
Muller's teammate Colin Turkington had looked set to make the most of home advantage as he claimed the top spot early on, but with about 10 minutes of qualifying remaining Muller put in a time that no-one could get anywhere near to secure pole.
Turkington then found himself demoted to third place by SEAT's Luke Hines, but on the final lap of the session he hauled himself back onto the front row - albeit 0.432 seconds behind Muller.
Hines kept hold of his third position as his SEAT teammate Jason Plato took fourth in the closing stages of the session.
Qualifying proved frustrating for the Championship leading Team Halfords Honda duo of Matt Neal and Dan Eaves. With the pair carrying maximum success ballast, and their cars not able to exploit their full potential on the tight Mondello circuit, Neal could manage no better than fifth with Eaves down in a lowly 10 th.
The three red flags were caused by Richard Williams (who failed to complete a lap thanks to transmission problems), James Kaye and Fiona Leggate.
Pos Driver Make Time Laps 1. Yvan Muller Vauxhall Astra 1:56.537 12 2. Colin Turkington Vauxhall Astra 1:56.969 + 0.432 13 3. Luke Hines SEAT Toledo Cupra 1:57.162 + 0.625 11 4. Jason Plato SEAT Toledo Cupra 1:57.410 + 0.873 10 5. Matt Neal Honda Integra 1:57.441 + 0.904 15 6. James Pickford SEAT Toledo Cupra 1:57.761 + 1.224 13 7. Tom Chilton Honda Civic Type-R 1:58.049 + 1.512 15 8. Gavin Smith Vauxhall Astra 1:58.126 + 1.589 13 9. Rob Collard MG ZS 1:58.228 + 1.691 13 10. Dan Eaves Honda Integra 1:58.793 + 2.256 12 11. Jason Hughes MG ZS 1:59.350 + 2.813 13 12. James Kaye Honda Civic Type-R 2:00.853 + 4.316 3 13. Ian Curley Lexus IS200 2:01.818 + 5.281 4 14. Fiona Leggate Vauxhall Astra Coupe 2:02.930 + 6.393 5 15. Mark Proctor Vauxhall Astra Coupe 2:03.207 + 6.670 9 16. Richard Williams Lexus IS200 No Time
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