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Tarquini takes third straight pole

Gabriele Tarquini will start Sunday's first World Touring Car race at Okayama from the front after securing his fifth pole position of the season in today's qualifying session

The championship leader set the pace on the first run of Q2 before knocking another three tenths off his time on his final lap to claim pole - his third in a row.

He will start alongside BMW's Andy Priaulx, who delivered his best lap of the weekend so far on his only lap in Q2. Fellow BMW driver Jorg Muller will start third, ahead of SEAT's Rickard Rydell and his Schnitzer team-mate Augusto Farfus.

Jordi Gene qualified fifth, while Tarquini's title rival, Yvan Muller, could only manage seventh after failing to improve by as much as his rivals on his final effort in Q2.

Tiago Monteiro and the Chevrolets of Rob Huff and Alain Menu complete the top 10.

Sergio Hernandez was the first driver to miss out on a place in Q2, setting the 11th quickest time in Q1 following an earlier engine change.

Independent championship leader Tom Coronel qualified first in class in 12th place overall, just ahead of James Thompson in the first of the Ladas.

Nicola Larini could only manage 14th in his Chevrolet, while Alex Zanardi was just 16th in his works BMW. The pair sandwiched independent BMW racer Felix Porteiro.

Norbertu Taniguchi qualified best of the guest drivers in his BMW in 18th, with fellow Super GT regular Seiji Ara 20th.

Pos Driver                   Car           Q1           Q2
 1. Gabriele Tarquini        SEAT          1m38.168s    1m37.666s
 2. Andy Priaulx             BMW           1m38.117s    1m37.716s
 3. Jorg Muller              BMW           1m37.914s    1m37.726s
 4. Rickard Rydell           SEAT          1m38.149s    1m37.799s
 5. Augusto Farfus           BMW           1m38.323s    1m37.826s
 6. Jordi Gene               SEAT          1m38.017s    1m37.835s
 7. Yvan Muller              SEAT          1m38.255s    1m37.978s
 8. Tiago Monteiro           SEAT          1m38.202s    1m38.119s
 9. Rob Huff                 Chevrolet     1m38.900s    1m38.620s
10. Alain Menu               Chevrolet     1m38.460s    1m39.110s
11. Sergio Hernandez         BMW           1m39.043s
12. Tom Coronel              SEAT          1m39.078s
13. James Thompson           Lada          1m39.106s
14. Nicola Larini            Chevrolet     1m39.126s
15. Felix Porteiro           BMW           1m39.159s
16. Alex Zanardi             BMW           1m39.186s
17. Stefano D'Aste           BMW           1m39.395s
18. Norbertu Taniguchi       BMW           1m39.469s
19. Jaap van Lagen           Lada          1m39.498s
20. Seiji Ara                BMW           1m39.549s
21. Joao Paulo de Oliveira   SEAT          1m39.643s
22. Franz Engstler           BMW           1m39.672s
23. Tom Boardman             SEAT          1m39.823s
24. Kristian Poulsen         BMW           1m40.112s
25. Kirill Ladygin           Lada          1m40.786s
26. Henry Ho                 BMW           1m41.536s
27. Masaki Kano              BMW           1m42.427s

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