Farfus takes shock pole at Monza

SEAT had been expected to dominate with the iconic circuit's long drags suiting the turbo diesel Leon, but problems with SEAT's slipstreaming train allowed BMW and Chevrolet the opportunity to pounce.

All five SEATs were jeopardised when Gabriele Tarquini ran wide at the second Lesmo at the head of the queue and delayed all of his team-mates.

Each team elected to run the 10-minute Q2 shootout on a single set of tyres, so even when the Leons re-aligned themselves for their next effort, the best of the tyres was gone.

That meant the first runs for BMW and Chevrolet turned out to be crucial, and Farfus had posted the quickest time, just 0.025s faster than Rob Huff.

The formation continues on row two with Andy Priaulx's BMW heading Alain Menu, with Yvan Muller fifth in the third Cherolet.

The SEATs then followed with Gene ahead of Tarquini, Norbert Michelisz's Zengo-Dension Leon, Fredy Barth and Tiago Monteiro.

Tom Coronel's SEAT was the only high-profile scalp in Q1, missing out on a place in qualifying's finale after spending much of the session in the pits. He got out in time to complete just one flying lap, which put him 13th.

Darryl O'Young will start at the head of the independents' class, from the sixth row of the grid.

Pos Driver              Car            Q1            Q2
 1. Augusto Farfus      BMW            2m01.126s     2m00.672s
 2. Rob Huff            Chevrolet      2m00.775s     2m00.697s
 3. Andy Priaulx        BMW            2m00.941s     2m00.807s
 4. Alain Menu          Chevrolet      2m01.091s     2m00.899s
 5. Yvan Muller         Chevrolet      2m00.834s     2m01.078s
 6. Jordi Gene          SEAT           2m01.629s     2m01.400s
 7. Gabriele Tarquini   SEAT           2m00.690s     2m01.544s
 8. Norbert Michelisz   SEAT           2m01.006s     2m01.731s
 9. Fredy Barth         SEAT           2m01.581s     2m01.926s
10. Tiago Monteiro      SEAT           2m00.862s     2m01.927s
11. Michel Nykjær       SEAT           2m01.765s
12. Darryl O'Young      Chevrolet      2m02.186s
13. Tom Coronel         SEAT           2m02.235s
14. Harry Vaulkhard     Chevrolet      2m02.384s
15. Leonel Pernía       Chevrolet      2m02.441s
16. Mehdi Bennani       BMW            2m02.829s
17. Kristian Poulsen    BMW            2m02.834s
18. Franz Engstler      BMW            2m02.983s
19. Stefano D'Aste      BMW            2m03.276s
20. Sergio Hernández    BMW            2m04.260s
21. Andrey Romanov      BMW            2m04.327s
22. Fabio Fabiani       BMW            2m08.144s