Alain Menu takes pole position for Suzuka World Touring Car race

On an afternoon livened up by a sprinkle of rain just prior to the second phase of qualifying, Menu managed a best time of 53.443s to edge out Chevrolet team-mate and championship leader Yvan Muller.

Robert Dahlgren derailed the RML squad's hopes of a one-two-three by going third-fastest in the Polestar Volvo, leading Rob Huff to settle for fourth. The level of competition among the frontrunners was underlined by the fact that the first two rows were covered by just 0.08 seconds.

Tom Coronel will start from fifth in his ROAL BMW alongside the SUNRED SEAT of Tiago Monteiro. Fellow SUNRED driver Michel Nykjaer was best of the independent runners with seventh, leaving Gabriele Tarquini (SUNRED), Darryl O'Young (bamboo Chevrolet) and Colin Turkington (Wiechers BMW) to round out the top 10.

The session was interrupted by one red flag, which was triggered when Pepe Oriola lost control of his SUNRED entry at the exit of the final corner and clouted the barriers five minutes before the end of the first phase, tearing off his left-front wheel.

At that point Tarquini, Turkington and O'Young were all outside the top 10, but when the green flag came out the trio made good use of the final couple of minutes to get themselves above the bubble.

Race one starting grid:

Pos  Driver              Team/Car          Time     Gap
 1.  Alain Menu          Chevrolet         53.443s
 2.  Yvan Muller         Chevrolet         53.492s  + 0.049s
 3.  Robert Dahlgren     Polestar Volvo    53.512s  + 0.069s
 4.  Rob Huff            Chevrolet         53.520s  + 0.077s
 5.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW          53.601s  + 0.158s
 6.  Tiago Monteiro      SUNRED SEAT       53.798s  + 0.355s
 7.  Michel Nykjaer      SUNRED SEAT       53.811s  + 0.368s
 8.  Gabriele Tarquini   SUNRED SEAT       53.824s  + 0.381s
 9.  Darryl O'Young      Bamboo Chevrolet  53.902s  + 0.459s
10.  Colin Turkington    Wiechers BMW      54.339s  + 0.896s
11.  Javier Villa        Proteam BMW       54.006s  + 0.334s
12.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Chevrolet         54.070s  + 0.398s
13.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo BMW         54.073s  + 0.401s
14.  Kristian Poulsen    Engstler BMW      54.126s  + 0.454s
15.  Aleksei Dudukalo    SUNRED SEAT       54.127s  + 0.455s
16.  Toshi Arai          Chevrolet         54.195s  + 0.523s
17.  Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW      54.219s  + 0.547s
18.  Fredy Barth         SUNRED SEAT       54.411s  + 0.739s
19.  Hiroki Yoshimoto    SUNRED SEAT       54.466s  + 0.794s
20.  Pepe Oriola         SUNRED SEAT       54.730s  + 1.058s
21.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW       55.002s  + 1.330s
22.  Charles Ng          Engstler BMW      55.356s  + 1.684s
23.  Masaki Kano         KK BMW            55.551s  + 1.879s
24.  Fabio Fabiani       Proteam BMW       58.023s  + 4.351s

Race two starting grid:

 1.  Darryl O'Young      Bamboo Chevrolet
 2.  Tom Coronel         ROAL BMW
 3.  Rob Huff            Chevrolet
 4.  Yvan Muller         Chevrolet
 5.  Tiago Monteiro      SUNRED SEAT
 6.  Robert Dahlgren     Polestar Volvo
 7.  Alain Menu          Chevrolet
 8.  Gabriele Tarquini   SUNRED SEAT
 9.  Michel Nykjaer      SUNRED SEAT
10.  Colin Turkington    Wiechers BMW
11.  Javier Villa        Proteam BMW
12.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Bamboo Chevrolet
13.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo BMW
14.  Kristian Poulsen    Engstler BMW
15.  Aleksei Dudukalo    SUNRED SEAT
16.  Toshi Arai          Chevrolet
17.  Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW
18.  Fredy Barth         SUNRED SEAT
19.  Hiroki Yoshimoto    SUNRED SEAT
20.  Pepe Oriola         SUNRED SEAT
21.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam BMW
22.  Charles Ng          Engstler BMW
23.  Masaki Kano         KK BMW
24.  Fabio Fabiani       Proteam BMW

Race one grid = Q2 top 10, Q1 11th onwards
Race two grid = Q1 top 10 reversed, then Q1 times 11th onwards