Zanardi claims first pole at Brno
Alex Zanardi claimed the first pole position of his World Touring Car Championship career with a stunning lap in qualifying for the fifth round of the series at Brno
The Italian, driving a ROAL Motorsport-run BMW 320si, set a best time of 2:08.913 late in the session to become the only driver to get below the 2:09 barrier.
Chevrolet's Alain Menu, who clashed with Zanardi while the pair battled for the lead of race two at Brno last year, will share the front row of the grid with the former Champ Car star, ahead of the second ROAL car of Felix Porteiro.
Rob Huff made it two Chevrolets on the front two rows with fourth place ahead of the SEAT turbodiesels of Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro.
James Thompson claimed a season's best seventh in the N.Technology Honda, one place ahead of Schnitzer BMW's Augusto Farfus.
SEAT's Yvan Muller and Chevrolet's Nicola Larini, who had qualified 11th and 12th behind defending triple WTCC champion Andy Priaulx, were both awared penalties - with Larino set to start from the back of the grid, while Muller's is a suspended penality, after being found to be running non-homologated racekit. Muller's balaclava was found not to be homologated, as were Larini's underwear and shoes.
The same fate befell Proteam Motorsport's Sergio Hernandez, who had qualified 13th and best of the Independents' Trophy contenders. This handed indie pole to Exagon Engineering's Pierre-Yves Corthals.
Pos Driver Car Time 1. Alessandro Zanardi BMW 320si 2:08.913 2. Alain Menu Chevrolet Lacetti 2:09.039 + 0.126 3. Felix Porteiro BMW 320si 2:09.100 + 0.187 4. Robert Huff Chevrolet Lacetti 2:09.104 + 0.191 5. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT Leon TDI 2:09.499 + 0.586 6. Tiago Monteiro SEAT Leon TDI 2:09.656 + 0.743 7. James Thompson Honda Accord Euro R 2:09.763 + 0.850 8. Augusto Farfus BMW 320si 2:09.801 + 0.888 9. Jordi Gene SEAT Leon TDI 2:09.809 + 0.896 10. Andy Priaulx BMW 320si 2:10.093 + 1.180 11. Yvan Muller SEAT Leon TDI 2:10.285 + 1.372 12. Nicola Larini Chevrolet Lacetti 2:10.324 + 1.411 13. Sergio Hernandez BMW 320si 2:10.341 + 1.428 14. Rickard Rydell SEAT Leon TDI 2:10.350 + 1.437 15. Tom Coronel SEAT Leon 2:10.482 + 1.569 16. Pierre-Yves Corthals SEAT Leon 2:10.597 + 1.684 17. Jorg Muller BMW 320si 2:10.675 + 1.762 18. Franz Engstler BMW 320si 2:11.123 + 2.210 19. Michal Matejovsky SEAT Leon 2:11.232 + 2.319 20. Oliver Tielemans BMW 320si 2:11.435 + 2.522 21. Stefano D'Aste BMW 320si 2:11.683 + 2.770 22. Andrei Romanov BMW 320si 2:12.047 + 3.134 23. Jaap Van Lagen Lada 110 2:12.144 + 3.231 24. Ibrahim Okyay BMW 320si 2:12.869 + 3.956 25. Viktor Shapovalov Lada 110 2:13.754 + 4.841 26. Alexander Lvov Honda Accord Euro R 2:14.527 + 5.614 27. Andrey Smetsky Honda Accord Euro R 2:18.472 + 9.559
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