Gene takes Puebla pole

The SEAT Leon TDI driver put in a lap of 1:40.808 in the closing stages of the session after a brief red flag stoppage, caused when teammate Tiago Monteiro suffered a suspect blown turbo with nine minutes remaining.

Gene, carrying just 1kg of success ballast, was the only driver to dip below the 1:41 second mark, with Chevrolet's Nicola Larini taking a superb second on the grid 0.173 seconds off Gene.

"It was a very good session," said Gene. "The track has changed a bit since this morning - we had a very good car with no temperature or rubber in the track, but then we had to make changes."

Despite earning a place on the front row, Larini was disappointed not to have done better.

"Yes I'm disappointed," he said. "When you are on pole and miss it at the last minute it's not nice. I think I could have done it.

"But honestly I am quite surprised there are not five SEAT diesels in the front of me. It's a big surprise. I'm confident for the race, but it's not going to be easy because this is a circuit where it is very difficult to stay on the line. You have to be a rally driver sometimes!"

With everyone expecting the SEAT turbodiesels to be dominant at the high altitude circuit, SUNRED driver Tom Coronel took advantage of the low-grip track conditions to claim a stunning third on the grid ahead of Chevrolet pairing Rob Huff and Alain Menu.

It was a difficult session for BMW as the marque struggled at a circuit where it has traditionally been relatively uncompetitive.

Schnitzer Motorsport's Augusto Farfus put in an excellent lap to take seventh on the grid, with ROAL Engineering's Felix Porteiro was best of the rest in 11th place ahead of Andy Priaulx and Jorg Muller. Alex Zanardi will start 15th despite missing the second free practice session after a crash.

The other SEAT diesels struggled to deliver their expected pace. Rickard Rydell took seventh on the grid, while Gabriele Tarquini put early session technical problems behind him to take eight ahead of team-mate Yvan Muller. Monteiro, in the fifth car, was only tenth after suffering his session-stopping problem.

In the Independents' Trophy, Pierre-Yves Corthals will start on pole in 14th overall for Exagon Engineering, with ex-GP2 racer Sergio Hernandez a row behind him in second for Proteam Motorsport.

Pos  Driver                Car                Time
 1.  Jordi Gene            SEAT Leon TDI      1:40.808
 2.  Nicola Larini         Chevrolet Lacetti  1:40.981  + 0.173
 3.  Tom Coronel           SEAT Leon          1:41.239  + 0.431
 4.  Robert Huff           Chevrolet Lacetti  1:41.488  + 0.680
 5.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet Lacetti  1:41.517  + 0.709
 6.  Augusto Farfus        BMW 320si          1:41.583  + 0.775
 7.  Rickard Rydell        SEAT Leon TDI      1:41.594  + 0.786
 8.  Gabriele Tarquini     SEAT Leon TDI      1:41.671  + 0.863
 9.  Yvan Muller           SEAT Leon TDI      1:41.791  + 0.983
10.  Tiago Monteiro        SEAT Leon TDI      1:41.873  + 1.065
11.  Felix Porteiro        BMW 320si          1:42.045  + 1.237
12.  Andy Priaulx          BMW 320si          1:42.208  + 1.400
13.  Jorg Muller           BMW 320si          1:42.235  + 1.427
14.  Pierre-Yves Corthals  SEAT Leon          1:42.729  + 1.921
15.  Alessandro Zanardi    BMW 320si          1:43.050  + 2.242
16.  Sergio Hernandez      BMW 320si          1:43.297  + 2.489
17.  Franz Engstler        BMW 320si          1:43.890  + 3.082
18.  Olivier Tielemans     BMW 320si          1:43.952  + 3.144
19.  Stefano D'Aste        BMW 320si          1:44.068  + 3.260
20.  Andrey Romanov        BMW 320si          1:45.437  + 4.629
21.  Ibrahim Okyay         BMW 320si          1:47.962  + 7.154