Monza WTCC: Yvan Muller dominates chaotic qualifying

As the Frenchman flew, breaking his own record practice pace several times, a number of his rivals floundered in a series of uncharacteristic and at times destructive clashes.

Rob Huff was the first to suffer an early exit as he and Freddy Barth made contact on their out-laps, just three minutes into the session.

Huff tried to limp his Munnich SEAT round to the pits but eventually abandoned the attempt, his stricken car leading to a lengthy red flag spell.

When the session resumed Muller immediately shot to the top of the timesheets. As he did so Lada's qualifying unravelled in spectacular fashion.

Aleksei Dudukalo misjudged braking for the first chicane and barrelled straight into the side of team-mate James Thompson (pictured below), who had been 100 metres down the road.

The Briton was at least able to make his way round to the pits and even got out in Q2 to set the ninth fastest time, giving him a share of the front row for Sunday's second race. Dudukalo was out on the spot and will start from 16th.

Honda also suffered, with Gabriele Tarquini tipping Rene Munnich into a spin late on in Q1 and then earning a black and white flag via contact under braking.

Tarquini was the only Honda driver to make it through to Q2, with team-mate Tiago Monteiro 15th. Zengo's Norbert Michelisz also failed to make the cut, suffering from brake issues.

Tarquini was at least able to break into the top five in qualifying, although he had little to offer in the way of competing with the dominant RML Chevrolets of Muller and team-mate Tom Chilton.

The pair will start the first race of the season alongside each other on the front row, with a third Cruze - that of Bamboo's Alex MacDowall - third.

Pepe Oriola took fourth ahead of Tarquini and James Nash in the second Bamboo Cruze. Michel Nykjaer and Marc Basseng share the fourth row.

Darryl O'Young earned himself pole for race two courtesy of qualifying 10th.

Pos  Driver                 Team/Car             Time       Gap
 1.  Yvan Muller            RML Chevrolet        1m56.486s
 2.  Tom Chilton            RML Chevrolet        1m57.345s  + 0.859s
 3.  Alex MacDowall         Bamboo Chevrolet     1m57.685s  + 1.199s
 4.  Pepe Oriola            Tuenti SEAT          1m57.833s  + 1.347s
 5.  Gabriele Tarquini      Honda                1m57.946s  + 1.460s
 6.  James Nash             Bamboo Chevrolet     1m58.005s  + 1.519s
 7.  Michel Nykjaer         NIKA Chevrolet       1m58.172s  + 1.686s
 8.  Marc Basseng           Munnich SEAT         1m58.518s  + 2.032s
 9.  James Thompson         Lada                 1m58.669s  + 2.183s
10.  Darryl O'Young         ROAL BMW             1m58.781s  + 2.295s
11.  Fernando Monje         Campos SEAT          1m58.814s  + 2.328s
12.  Stefano d'Aste         PB BMW               2m00.475s  + 3.989s
13.  Franz Engstler         Engstler BMW         1m59.046s  Q1
14.  Tom Boardman           Special Tuning SEAT  1m59.116s  Q1
15.  Tiago Monteiro         Honda                1m59.155s  Q1
16.  Aleksei Dudukalo       Lada                 1m59.303s  Q1
17.  Tom Coronel            ROAL BMW             1m59.386s  Q1
18.  Mehdi Bennani          Proteam BMW          1m59.685s  Q1
19.  Rene Munnich           Munnich SEAT         1m59.978s  Q1
20.  Fredy Barth            Wiechers BMW         2m00.090s  Q1
21.  Norbert Michelisz      Zengo Honda          2m00.799s  Q1
22.  Charles Ng             Engstler BMW         2m00.901s  Q1
23.  Jean-Philippe Dayraut  Anome BMW            2m00.957s  Q1
24.  Rob Huff               Munnich SEAT