Huff grabs maiden WTCC pole position
Rob Huff will start from the front of the grid for Sunday morning's World Touring Car race at Oschersleben after taking his first-ever pole position in an exciting qualifying session this afternoon
Right up until the dying moments, it seemed that the honours were headed the way of SEAT's Gabriele Tarquini, but Huff used the very last lap of the session to steal pole away from under the Italian's nose with a 1:35.675.
"It's my first-ever touring car pole position, so obviously I am very happy," said an elated Huff. "The car was fantastic. I knew Gabriele had beaten my previous time on his last run and just pipped me to pole, so I knew I had to do a very special lap to get it back."
Tarquini, meanwhile, was happy with his second place, particularly in light of that fact that he is carrying 69kg of ballast.
"I'm very pleased to be on the front row, it's very important in terms of the championship fight," said the Italian, who is just one point behind his SEAT teammate Yvan Muller at the head of the title race.
"But at the start of the race anything can happen. Maybe after a few laps I will think about the championship fight, but before that I don't want to think about it - I just want to go as fast as possible."
Tiago Monteiro was next fastest in third place, despite clipping a tyre barrier on his final run, with Tom Coronel joining him on the second row in the petrol-powered SUNRED Leon.
Augusto Farfus was the fastest of the BMWs in fifth, despite having to pit early in the session with a loose bonnet, while both of Tarquini's main title rivals have a busy day ahead tomorrow with Andy Priaulx starting from ninth and Muller 11th.
Pierre-Yves Corthals took pole for the Independents in Exagon Engineering SEAT Leon, although the Belgian ended the session in the tyre barriers after overcooking it under braking with a few minutes to go.
Pos Driver Car Time Gap 1. Rob Huff Chevrolet 1:35.675 2. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT 1:35.866 +0.191 3. Tiago Monteiro SEAT 1:35.936 +0.261 4. Tom Coronel SEAT 1:35.976 +0.301 5. Nicola Larini Chevrolet 1:35.992 +0.317 6. Augusto Farfus BMW 1:36.004 +0.329 7. Jordi Gene SEAT 1:36.110 +0.435 8. Alain Menu Chevrolet 1:36.203 +0.528 9. Andy Priaulx BMW 1:36.220 +0.545 10. Rickard Rydell SEAT 1:36.243 +0.568 11. Yvan Muller SEAT 1:36.275 +0.600 12. Felix Porteiro BMW 1:36.302 +0.627 13. Jorg Muller BMW 1:36.358 +0.683 14. James Thompson Honda 1:36.364 +0.689 15. Pierre-Yves Corthals SEAT 1:36.526 +0.851 16. Sergio Hernandez BMW 1:36.561 +0.886 17. Alex Zanardi BMW 1:36.811 +1.136 18. Marin Colak SEAT 1:36.859 +1.184 19. Stefano d'Aste BMW 1:36.861 +1.186 20. Duncan Huisman BMW 1:36.904 +1.229 21. Franz Engstler BMW 1:36.969 +1.294 22. Jaap van Lagen Lada 1:37.141 +1.466 23. Olivier Tielemans BMW 1:37.167 +1.492 24. Kristian Poulsen BMW 1:37.400 +1.725 25. Andrey Romanov BMW 1:37.925 +2.250 26. George Tanev BMW 1:38.093 +2.418 27. Viktor Shapovalov Lada 1:38.756 +3.081 28. Ibrahim Okyay BMW 1:39.905 +4.230 29. Aytac Biter BMW 1:40.854 +5.179
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