Tarquini grabs surprise pole

Tarquini set his time during a six-minute scramble following a late-session red flag caused by the factory SEAT of Michel Jourdain Jr hitting the wall.

Prior to that, Muller had held sway behind the wheel of the diesel-powered Leon.

"It was very good timing for me this time," said Tarquini. "The track was getting faster and faster as the session went on and I had a new set of tyres.

"Then I did a good lap with no problems and it was quite easy to take pole position."

Muller's performance was all the more impressive given that he was behind the wheel of the heaviest car in the field, with his success ballast and the extra weight for running with a diesel engine meaning his Leon weighed in at 1208kg.

"I'm a bit disappointed, especially because it's the second time this year I've missed pole by such a small amount," said Muller.

"But I was not happy with the car in practice and if you told me before qualifying that I would have been in the top three I would have been surprised."

At a circuit where BMW has won nine out of the past ten races, SEAT Italia's Roberto Colciago underlined the Spanish marque's qualifying supremacy by taking third overall in his independently-run Leon.

Championship leader Jorg Muller was best of the BMWs in fourth overall ahead of the lead Chevrolet Lacetti of Alain Menu, although Schnitzer Motorsport teammate Augusto Farfus was prevented from launching his own last-gasp bid for pole when he was hit into a spin by a SEAT.

Tiago Monteiro took seventh place for SEAT ahead of the RBM-run BMW 320si of defending champion Andy Priaulx, with the N.Technology-run Alfa Romeo 156 of James Thompson down in ninth ahead of the ROAL BMW of Felix Porteiro.

WTCC returnee Peter Terting qualified 12th behind the second-best independent runner, Exagon Engineering's Pierre-Yves Corthals, with the second SEAT Italia car of another returnee, Massimiliano Pedaa, 13th.

Chevrolet pairing Rob Huff and Nicola Larini were 14th and 19th respectively, while the second diesel SEAT of Jordi Gene ended up only 18th after the Spaniard spun into the gravel early in the session.

Pos  Driver            Make        Time
 1.  G.Tarquini        SEAT        1:36.291
 2.  Yvan Muller       SEAT        1:36.302 + 0.011
 3.  Roberto Colciago  SEAT        1:36.305 + 0.014
 4.  Jorg Muller       BMW         1:36.353 + 0.062
 5.  Alain Menu        Chevrolet   1:36.471 + 0.180
 6.  Augusto Farfus    BMW         1:36.558 + 0.267
 7.  Tiago Monteiro    SEAT        1:36.582 + 0.291
 8.  Andy Priaulx      BMW         1:36.608 + 0.317
 9.  James Thompson    Alfa Romeo  1:36.620 + 0.329
10.  Felix Porteiro    BMW         1:36.629 + 0.338
11.  P-Y.Corthals      SEAT        1:36.699 + 0.408
12.  Peter Terting     SEAT        1:36.715 + 0.424
13.  M.Pedala          SEAT        1:36.996 + 0.705
14.  Robert Huff       Chevrolet   1:37.000 + 0.709
15.  Stefano D'Aste    BMW         1:37.054 + 0.763
16.  Tom Coronel       SEAT        1:37.121 + 0.830
17.  O.Tielemans       Alfa Romeo  1:37.136 + 0.845
18.  Jordi Gene        SEAT        1:37.156 + 0.865
19.  Nicola Larini     Chevrolet   1:37.177 + 0.886
20.  M.Jourdain Jr.    SEAT        1:37.261 + 0.970
21.  A.Zanardi         BMW         1:37.314 + 1.023
22.  Luca Rangoni      BMW         1:37.422 + 1.131
23.  Timur Sadredinov  SEAT        1:37.451 + 1.160
24.  Sergio Hernandez  BMW         1:37.588 + 1.297
25.  M.Ceresoli        SEAT        1:38.293 + 2.002
26.  Miguel Freitas    Alfa Romeo  1:39.127 + 2.836