Farfus secures last gasp pole
Augusto Farfus upstaged local hero Jordi Gene to take pole position for the Valencia round of the World Touring Car Championship
Gene had topped practice and put his SEAT on provisional pole early in the session.
While second place was swapped between a horde of drivers, it appeared Gene was safe on top until Farfus snuck ahead right at the end.
"It was an amazing job. I did a very good lap," said Farfus.
"We're trying our best to still keep the championship open.
"It will be a pretty hard job tomorrow, I just have to try and score some important points for the championship. That will be my target tomorrow."
Farfus' teammate Salvatore Tavano will be able to support him from third on the grid, ahead of Alain Menu in the lead Chevrolet and top independent Tom Coronel.
The top 22 on the grid were covered by less than a second after an astonishingly close session.
For much of the half-hour the factory BMWs were mired towards the bottom of this pack, but then Jorg Muller jumped to ninth on the final lap.
Championship leader Andy Priaulx will start a lowly 17th, however. He will take some comfort from the fact that his nearest challengers - SEAT drivers Gabriele Tarquini and Rickard Rydell - are just one row in front, as all three struggled with their success ballast.
Qualifying times:
Pos Driver Make Time 1. Augusto Farfus Alfa Romeo 156 1:44.534 2. Jordi Gene SEAT Leon 1:44.662 + 0.128 3. Salvatore Tavano Alfa Romeo 156 1:44.852 + 0.318 4. Alain Menu Chevrolet Lacetti 1:44.863 + 0.329 5. Tom Coronel SEAT Leon 1:44.920 + 0.386 6. Nicola Larini Chevrolet Lacetti 1:44.971 + 0.437 7. James Thompson SEAT Leon 1:44.980 + 0.446 8. Peter Terting SEAT Leon 1:45.030 + 0.496 9. Jorg Muller BMW 320si 1:45.065 + 0.531 10. Luca Rangoni BMW 320si 1:45.110 + 0.576 11. Alessandro Zanardi BMW 320si 1:45.215 + 0.681 12. Duncan Huisman BMW 320si 1:45.261 + 0.727 13. Robert Huff Chevrolet Lacetti 1:45.265 + 0.731 14. Yvan Muller SEAT Leon 1:45.269 + 0.735 15. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT Leon 1:45.289 + 0.755 16. Rickard Rydell SEAT Leon 1:45.333 + 0.799 17. Andy Priaulx BMW 320si 1:45.339 + 0.805 18. Oscar Nogues SEAT Leon 1:45.357 + 0.823 19. Stefano D'Aste BMW 320i 1:45.446 + 0.912 20. Pierre-Yves Corthals Honda Accord 1:45.472 + 0.938 21. Gianni Morbidelli Alfa Romeo 156 1:45.505 + 0.971 22. Dirk Muller BMW 320si 1:45.524 + 0.990 23. Maurizio Ceresoli SEAT Leon 1:45.816 + 1.282 24. Diego Romanini BMW 320i 1:47.327 + 2.793 25. Maria De Villota Chevrolet Lacetti 1:47.752 + 3.218
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