Salzburgring WTCC: Gianni Morbidelli ends Citroen's pole streak

The Munnich Motorsport driver, who already held the honour of being the only non-Citroen competitor to win this season, set a fastest Q3 time of 1m22.137s, to deny defending WTCC champion Yvan Muller pole by 0.049 seconds.

Morbidelli, consistently quickest through the Austrian venue's second sector during the weekend, surprised himself in the single-lap in Q3 which was faster than his Q2 time which had been set with the aid of a slipstream.

"To beat the Citroens and do a 1m22.1s lap alone is really something special, because there are three of them and they have been so strong everywhere," said Morbidelli.

Practice pacesetter Sebastien Loeb will start Sunday's opening race from third on the grid, ahead of the ROAL Motorsport Cruze of Tom Coronel.

Championship leader Jose Maria Lopez's qualifying threat appeared to falter after the former TC2000 champion pirouetted at the daunting Turn 9 Fahrerlagerkurve in Q1.

Lopez only just made the Q3 cut by a scant 0.094s from Coronel's ROAL team-mate Tom Chilton.

The Fahrerlagerkurve was also the scene of spectacular spin for Serbian Dusan Borkovic in Q2, which brought the session to a halt.

In a near repeat of his Campos team-mate Hugo Valente's weekend-ending practice shunt, Borkovic managed to escape with less extensive damage to his Cruze.

Borkovic successfully scrubbed off speed by flooring the throttle on his front-wheel drive car when travelling sideways, ensuring he crashed into the barriers comparatively lightly.

On the restart, two large trains of cars circulated as drivers sought to find a slipstream.

Loeb led Lopez, Morbidelli, Rene Munnich and Tom Chilton, while the four Honda Civic WTCCs headed a separate group, onto the rear of which lurked Coronel and Muller.

Four-time WTCC champion Muller benefited from the tow to top Q2, while Coronel bumped Morbidelli back to third.

Factory Honda racer Gabriele Tarquini secured pole for the reversed-grid race two by qualifying tenth.

In the closing stages of the opening segment of qualifying, Tarquini had appeared vulnerable to being demoted from the top 12 who earn entry into Q2.

The Italian clung onto finish 12th in Q1 after a last ditch challenge from Lada failed to dislodge the former champion from his coveted position.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car           Time       Gap   
 1.  Gianni Morbidelli     Munnich Chevrolet  1m22.137s        
 2.  Yvan Muller           Citroen            1m22.186s +0.049s
 3.  Sebastien Loeb        Citroen            1m22.363s +0.226s
 4.  Tom Coronel           ROAL Chevrolet     1m22.432s +0.295s
 5.  Jose Maria Lopez      Citroen            1m22.507s +0.370s
 6.  Tom Chilton           ROAL Chevrolet     1m22.565s  Q2    
 7.  Tiago Monteiro        Honda              1m22.790s  Q2    
 8.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam Honda      1m22.866s  Q2    
 9.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo Honda        1m22.871s  Q2    
10.  Gabriele Tarquini     Honda              1m22.929s  Q2    
11.  Rene Munnich          Munnich Chevrolet  1m23.363s  Q2    
12.  Dusan Borkovic        Campos Chevrolet              Q2    
13.  James Thompson        Lada               1m23.705s  Q1    
14.  Robert Huff           Lada               1m23.722s  Q1    
15.  Mikhail Kozlovskiy    Lada               1m24.144s  Q1    
16.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW       1m27.550s  Q1    
17.  John Filippi          Campos SEAT        1m28.245s  Q1    
18.  Pasquale Di Sabatino  Engstler BMW       1m28.901s  Q1