Yvan Muller leads all-Chevrolet top three in Hungaroring World Touring Car qualifying

Muller relegated team-mate and title challenger Rob Huff to the outside of the front row on his final flying lap of the decisive second qualifying session. The triple world champion enjoyed a 0.267-second pole margin, having earlier outpaced Huff by a similar margin to top the timesheets in Q1.

"It wasn't a bad lap, but not perfect either," said Huff. "I was quite surprised when I saw my lap-time. I was hoping that was going to be enough for pole - but (Yvan) has done it again. As Chevrolet is one-two-three we can protect each other a little at the start tomorrow. What anyone else decides to do on the approach Turn 1, on the grass or whatever, is up to them, but hopefully we can keep it together."

The third factory Cruze of Alain Menu was the final competitor to set a representative lap-time. Menu aborted his initial Q2 run as the Swiss felt it was insufficient to topple Huff's provisional pole effort, and his final attempt at repeating his 2011 Hungaroring pole position was scuppered by the presence of Franz Engtsler's Team Engstler BMW travelling slowly on the racing line in the third sector.

"My last lap was going well, as I was slightly up on Yvan at the end of the second sector," said Menu. "Unfortunately, I found Engstler on an in-lap, and although I was flashing my lights he just stayed right on the racing line. I am very disappointed. However, Yvan did a very good lap. I am not sure if the traffic cost me pole, but it certainly cost me second."

Fastest in free practice two, Gabriele Tarquini's Lukoil SEAT took fourth ahead of a strong effort from the singleton Proteam BMW of Moroccan Mehdi Bennani.

Pole winner in Slovakia, Zengo Motorsport's Norbert Michelisz put himself in contention for a strong points haul in front of home fans by qualifying sixth.

Former grand prix driver Tiago Monteiro dropped two places from his Q1 effort, ending the afternoon seventh aboard his Tuenti Racing Leon.

Special Tuning's Darryl O'Young confirmed his competitive practice pace to take eighth ahead of the second Tuenti entry of independents' points leader Pepe Oriola (Tuenti SEAT). Engstler was 10th and will therefore start from pole for race two.

The anticipated maiden outing of the Lada Granta Sport was cut short by reliability gremlins. James Thompson was able to complete one flying lap in Q1 before coming to a stop at Turn 5. The former British Touring Car champion was fleetingly ninth, before being demoted to 16th in a still encouraging debut.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car               Time        Gap
 1.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet              1m54.503s
 2.  Robert Huff           Chevrolet              1m54.770s   + 0.267s
 3.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet              1m54.993s   + 0.490s
 4.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT            1m55.074s   + 0.571s
 5.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW            1m55.205s   + 0.702s
 6.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW              1m55.322s   + 0.819s
 7.  Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT            1m55.362s   + 0.859s
 8.  Darryl O'Young        Special Tuning SEAT    1m55.768s   + 1.265s
 9.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT            1m55.841s   + 1.338s
10.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW           1m55.953s   + 1.450s
11.  Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet       1m56.096s   + 1.593s
12.  James Nash            Arena Ford             1m56.791s   Q1 
13.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW               1m56.347s   Q1
14.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW           1m56.387s   Q1
15.  Stefano D'Aste        Wiechers BMW           1m56.434s   Q1
16.  James Thompson        Lada Granta Sport      1m56.527s   Q1
17.  Gabor Weber           Zengo BMW              1m56.542s   Q1
18.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT            1m56.544s   Q1
19.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW               1m56.625s   Q1
20.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet       1m56.702s   Q1
21.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford             1m57.415s   Q1
22.  Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT    1m57.890s   Q1

Race two grid:

 1.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW
 2.  Pepe Oriola           Tuenti SEAT
 3.  Darryl O'Young        Special Tuning SEAT
 4.  Tiago Monteiro        Tuenti SEAT
 5.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo BMW
 6.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam BMW
 7.  Gabriele Tarquini     Lukoil SEAT
 8.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet
 9.  Robert Huff           Chevrolet
10.  Yvan Muller           Chevrolet
11.  Alex MacDowall        bamboo Chevrolet
12.  James Nash            Arena Ford
13.  Alberto Cerqui        ROAL BMW
14.  Charles Ng            Engstler BMW
15.  Stefano D'Aste        Wiechers BMW
16.  James Thompson        Lada Granta Sport
17.  Gabor Weber           Zengo BMW
18.  Aleksei Dudukalo      Lukoil SEAT
19.  Tom Coronel           ROAL BMW
20.  Pasquale di Sabatino  bamboo Chevrolet
21.  Tom Chilton           Arena Ford
22.  Tom Boardman          Special Tuning SEAT