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Huff claims Cruze's maiden pole

Rob Huff clinched his second World Touring Car pole position and the first for the new Chevrolet Cruze in qualifying at Marrakech this afternoon

The Briton pipped team-mate Alain Menu to head an all-Chevrolet front row after RML's three Cruze's had finished 1-2-3 in the first part of qualifying.

Menu jumped to the top of the timesheet with his first run in Q2, but was demoted to second as all three Chevrolet drivers formed a slipstreaming train along the Marrakech street circuit's long straights.

But Menu later had his times from Q2 disallowed because his car failed to restart under its own power following a mandatory visit to the weighbridge. He will start the first race from 10th.

The so far dominant diesel SEATs were not able to overhaul the Chevrolets, which are running 60kg lighter than their rivals with compensation weight coming into force for the first time this weekend.

Gabriele Tarquini, Yvan Muller and Jordi Gene each improved on their final run, though, to push Nicola Larini down to fifth place. Tiago Monteiro will start Sunday's first race in sixth place, ahead of lead independent Franz Engstler who qualified as the highest-placed BMW.

Two of the factory BMWs made it through to Q2, but neither got to turn a quick lap in the session. Jorg Muller had to park his BMW on the outlap with a mechanical failure, while Andy Priaulx was forced to sit out the session entirely.

Priaulx ran wide at Turn 1 at the beginning of his final lap of Q1 and collided with fellow works BMW driver Sergio Hernandez, who was recovering from the outside of the run-off having made a similar mistake seconds earlier.

Both cars nosed into the barrier and Priaulx was prohibited from progressing to Q2, despite having set the eighth quickest time in Q1, because he had required assistance to make it back to the pits.

Rickard Rydell and Augusto Farfus were the high-profile casualties of Q1 and will start tomorrow's first race in 12th and 13th places.

Pos Driver               Car          Q1            Q2
 1. Rob Huff             Chevrolet    1m50.817s     1m49.789s
 2. Gabriele Tarquini    SEAT         1m51.033s     1m50.086s
 3. Yvan Muller          SEAT         1m50.924s     1m50.156s
 4. Jordi Gene           SEAT         1m51.294s     1m50.266s
 5. Nicola Larini        Chevrolet    1m50.723s     1m50.372s
 6. Tiago Monteiro       SEAT         1m51.086s     1m50.770s
 7. Franz Engstler       BMW          1m51.750s     1m51.643s
 8. Jorg Muller          BMW          1m51.593s       no time
 9. Andy Priaulx         BMW          1m51.508s       no time
10. Alain Menu           Chevrolet    1m50.271s     1m49.956s (excluded)
11. Alex Zanardi         BMW          1m51.753s
12. Rickard Rydell       SEAT         1m51.806s
13. Augusto Farfus       BMW          1m51.945s
14. Mehdi Bennani        SEAT         1m52.008s
15. Felix Porteiro       BMW          1m52.148s
16. Tom Coronel          SEAT         1m52.271s
17. Kristian Poulsen     BMW          1m52.401s
18. Marin Colak          SEAT         1m52.504s
19. Sergio Hernandez     BMW          1m52.622s
20. Stefano D'Aste       BMW          1m52.733s
21. Jaap van Lagen       Lada         1m53.001s
22. Kirill Ladygin       Lada         1m53.510s
23. George Tanev         BMW          1m53.636s
24. Vito Postiglione     BMW          1m53.711s
25. Viktor Shapovalov    Lada         1m54.046s

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