Muller takes pole for season-opener

The car was working perfectly," said Muller. "The team did a fantastic job over the winter and this is my way of saying thank you to them. But qualifying is one thing, let's hope I can do the same in the race tomorrow."

2002 champion James Thompson was unlucky to miss out on third by a miniscule 0.03s. Alan Morrison and Warren Hughes filled out the top six for Honda and MG, respectively.

Barwell Motorsport's Luke Hines was the fastest Production Class qualifier in his Honda Civic Type-R. The fastest independent was GA Motorsport's Gavin Pyper.

Chilly spring weather greeted the British Touring Car Championship teams as qualifying for the opening race of the season got underway. Thompson put in the first seriously quick time of the day, only to have it taken away from him after a car ride height infringement was detected on his Astra.

It was also an inauspicious start for the new Halfords team - running Sergio Rinland tweaked Peugeot 307's - with Dan Eaves finishing up slowest of the independents and team-mate Carl Breeze stuggling along with a persistent electrical gremlin.

There was a 10 minute stoppage halfway through the session, after Tom Chilton threw his Honda Racing Civic Type R at the Irish scenery in Turn Four. Privateer James Kaye also had traction problems when he spun his Civic on the way to 14th slot.


Y Muller, VX Racing/Triple Eight, 1m45.651s
M Neal, Honda Racing/Arena, 1m46.016s
A Reid, MG Sport/WSR, 1m46.240s
J Thompson, VX Racing/Triple Eight, 1m46.272s
A Morrison, Honda Racing/Arena, 1m46.560s
W Hughes, MG Sport/WSR, 1m46.566s