Priaulx ends pole drought in Japan

The three-time world champion took full advantage of a switch to a sequential gearbox - and the resultant 30kg weight reduction - to lap the circuit in 1m36.972s, the best lap of the weekend so far.

Priaulx, who lies second in the championship, beat his RBM BMW team-mate Augusto Farfus to the top spot by four tenths of a second. Alain Menu was the best of the Chevrolet drivers in third.

Series returnee Colin Turkington, who had never even seen the Okayama circuit before Friday, was a surprise pace-setter in Q1 in his WSR BMW, but slipped to fourth in Q2.

Behind him Norbert Michelisz took a career-best fifth spot in his Zengo-Dension SEAT, one place ahead of world champion Gabriele Tarquini's SR-Sport machine.

Tarquini only made it into Q2 thanks to a banzai last-lap effort that took him from 13th to sixth in Q1, but did manage to outqualify series leader Yvan Muller, with the Frenchman's Chevrolet team-mate Alain Menu in between them.

Michael Rossi was a superb ninth on his championship debut in his SR-Sport SEAT while Franz Engstler was the best independent competitor in 10th, three places clear of his nearest rival, Darryl O'Young (Bamboo Chevrolet), and nine clear of points leader Sergio Hernandez (Proteam BMW).

Tom Coronel, quickest in final practice, was a major disappointment as the Dutchman could only qualify his SR-Sport SEAT 17th.

Pos  Driver              Car        Q1         Q2
 1.  Andy Priaulx        BMW        1m37.623s  1m36.972s
 2.  Augusto Farfus      BMW        1m37.455s  1m37.408s
 3.  Rob Huff            Chevrolet  1m37.690s  1m37.441s
 4.  Colin Turkington    BMW        1m37.264s  1m37.495s
 5.  Norbert Michelisz   SEAT       1m37.707s  1m37.577s
 6.  Gabriele Tarquini   SEAT       1m37.725s  1m37.727s
 7.  Alain Menu          Chevrolet  1m37.805s  1m37.844s
 8.  Yvan Muller         Chevrolet  1m37.767s  1m37.913s
 9.  Michael Rossi       SEAT       1m37.809s  1m38.387s
10.  Franz Engstler      BMW        1m37.786s  1m38.605s
11.  Tiago Monteiro      SEAT       1m37.904s
12.  Michel Nykjaer      SEAT       1m37.904s
13.  Darryl O'Young      Chevrolet  1m38.056s
14.  Robert Dahlgren     Volvo      1m38.128s
15.  Kristian Poulsen    BMW        1m38.156s
16.  Fredy Barth         SEAT       1m38.171s
17.  Tom Coronel         SEAT       1m38.190s
18.  Stefano D'Aste      BMW        1m38.540s
19.  Sergio Hernandez    BMW        1m38.728s
20.  Yukinori Taniguchi  Chevrolet  1m38.747s
21.  Andrei Romanov      BMW        1m39.098s
22.  Yoshihiro Ito       BMW        1m39.584s
23.  Mehdi Bennani       BMW        1m39.883s
24.  Nobuteru Taniguchi  BMW        1m39.891s
25.  Masataka Yanagida   BMW        1m39.927s
26.  Kevin Chen          BMW        1m39.997s
27.  Henry Ho            BMW        1m40.681s