Muller takes debut pole for Chevrolet

The former world champion was leading after the first round of quick laps in Q2, but the result came down to the last run of the session with nine of the 10 cars on track at once. Muller had to improve with his effort to fight off Jordi Gene who briefly went quickest.

"I am pleased, it's always good to start the season with a pole position and it's always good to start new relationship with a new team with pole, so of course I am really pleased," Muller said.

"I am also pleased for the team because we can see the work we did through winter with first, third and fourth on grid - it means we have worked well. I am still a little bit driving in style of the diesel, so I can progress a little bit more on that still."

Chevrolet team-mates Alain Menu and Rob Huff were second and third heading onto that final lap and neither improved, but they retained third and fourth places.

Reigning world champion Gabriele Tarquini improved with his final effort to jump the BMWs of Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus for fifth. Michel Nykjaer will start eighth, with Tom Coronel ninth ahead of Norbert Michelisz who lost his opportunity to improve when he flew off the road in his SEAT on the last lap.

Tiago Monteiro was the high-profile casualty of Q1, shoved out of the top 10 by team-mate Coronel with five seconds remaining on the clock.

Stefano D'Aste was fastest of the independents in 13th place, ahead of Darryl O'Young's Chevrolet Lacetti.

Chevrolet had swept the board at the end of Q1 with Huff knocking two tenths off his time to hold onto the top spot, while team-mate Menu and Muller broke into the 1m23s to take second and third.

Pos Driver              Car          Q1          Q2            Gap
 1. Yvan Muller         Chevrolet    1m23.923s   1m23.725s
 2. Jordi Gene          SEAT         1m24.157s   1m23.757s  +0.032
 3. Alain Menu          Chevrolet    1m23.730s   1m23.829s  +0.104
 4. Rob Huff            Chevrolet    1m23.630s   1m23.833s  +0.108
 5. Gabriele Tarquini   SEAT         1m24.125s   1m23.834s  +0.109
 6. Andy Priaulx        BMW          1m24.034s   1m23.955s  +0.230
 7. Augusto Farfus      BMW          1m24.006s   1m23.981s  +0.256
 8. Michel Nykjaer      SEAT         1m24.516s   1m24.161s  +0.436
 9. Tom Coronel         SEAT         1m24.558s   1m24.325s  +0.600
10. Norbert Michelisz   SEAT         1m24.019s   1m24.926s  +1.201
11. Tiago Monteiro      SEAT         1m24.562s
12. Fredy Barth         SEAT         1m24.983s
13. Stefano D'Aste      BMW          1m25.153s
14. Darryl O'Young      Chevrolet    1m25.328s
15. Mehdi Bennani       BMW          1m25.486s
16. Franz Engstler      BMW          1m25.547s
17. Sergio Hernandez    BMW          1m25.826s
18. Harry Vaulkhard     Chevrolet    1m25.841s
19. Andrei Romanov      BMW          1m27.567s