Tarquini takes Brno pole

The Italian SEAT Leon driver, on pole for the second time this season, set his best time of 2:12.286 with ten minutes to go of the session, bettering the time set by his compatriot Alessandro Zanardi in his BMW320si by 0.7 seconds.

The latter lost second place to fellow BMW driver Jorg Muller who set a time of 2:12.331 in the dying seconds of the session.

Fourth place went to Britain's Robert Huff who set his best time in his Chevrolet Lacetti as the session-ending chequered flag was being waved.

Spaniard Jordi Gene managed a fifth place with his SEAT Leon while reigning champion Andy Priaulx took his BMW 320si to the sixth spot of the grid.

Series leader James Thompson took his heavy (70 kilos of success ballast) SEAT Leon to 11th place while Augusto Farfus Jr, who won the last race in Puebla and today was carrying an extra 80 kilos of ballast, could only manage 15th.

With air temperatures at the sunny Brno track reaching close to 40 degrees Celsius, Tarquini hopes tomorrow will be cooler. He said: "It was not so easy [to get pole] because - especially with this weather - we suffer a bit but the car's set up was really good so I saved one set of tyres for tomorrow.

"It will be good to have new tyres at the front because tomorrow it will be completely different. [Not having a weight handicap] was important because if you see the performance of our car with a lot of weight, like James Thompson has, it will be very hard for him because this track is very difficult on tyre wear.

"Any front-wheel drive car will be in trouble after five or six laps if the weather stays like this. The BMW is very strong for the race and I hope tomorrow will have a different temperature: 10 or 15 degrees less will be good for any front-wheel drive car."

Pos  Driver                Car                  Time
 1.  Gabriele Tarquini     SEAT Leon            2:12.286
 2.  Jorg Muller           BMW 320si            2:12.331 + 0.045
 3.  Alessandro Zanardi    BMW 320si            2:12.353 + 0.067
 4.  Jordi Gene            SEAT Leon            2:12.442 + 0.156
 5.  Andy Priaulx          BMW 320si            2:12.506 + 0.220
 6.  Rickard Rydell        SEAT Leon            2:12.662 + 0.376
 7.  Yvan Muller           SEAT Leon            2:12.717 + 0.431
 8.  Tom Coronel           SEAT Leon            2:12.755 + 0.469
 9.  Alain Menu            Chevrolet Lacetti    2:12.812 + 0.526
10.  Augusto Farfus        Alfa Romeo 156       2:13.061 + 0.775
11.  Duncan Huisman        BMW 320si            2:13.119 + 0.833
12.  Luca Rangoni          BMW 320si            2:13.162 + 0.876
13.  Peter Terting         SEAT Leon            2:13.185 + 0.899
14.  Dirk Muller           BMW 320si            2:13.213 + 0.927
15.  Robert Huff           Chevrolet Lacetti    2:13.386 + 1.100
16.  Ryan Sharp            Honda Accord Euro R  2:13.419 + 1.133
17.  Nicola Larini         Chevrolet Lacetti    2:13.546 + 1.260
18.  Pierre-Yves Corthals  Honda Accord Euro R  2:13.663 + 1.377
19.  Stefano d'Aste        BMW 320i             2:13.915 + 1.629
20.  James Thompson        SEAT Leon            2:14.285 + 1.999
21.  Salvatore Tavano      Alfa Romeo 156       2:14.433 + 2.147
22.  Gianni Morbidelli     Alfa Romeo 156       2:14.710 + 2.424