Swiss Chevrolet driver Alain Menu scored his fourth pole position of the season in a fiercely fought qualifying session for tomorrow’s ninth round of the 2007 World Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch, England. Menu achieved his time in the dying minutes of the session despite losing some time in the last corner. Rob Huff qualified in ninth and Nicola Larini in fourteenth with nineteen cars qualifying within the same second. Last year, Menu and Chevrolet achieved their first ever WTCC wins at this very same track and will now be looking to score their first repeat win. Unlike last year, when heavy rain made the goings tough, the weather is expected to be warm and sunny, which will make tomorrow’s races on the undulating Kentish track as tough as they’ve ever been. But at this particular track Alain Menu has scored more touring car wins than any other driver on tomorrow’s grid… • QUOTES Alain Menu: “I don’t remember a qualifying session on the long Grand Prix track being this close in the BTCC. My last lap was quite good, except in the last corner where I lost some time. Tomorrow’s races will be hard but in any case interesting. I’ll try to keep that first position at the rolling start of the first race, of course, but as far as I am concerned I won’t be overly worried about winning or not. So far we have had such a good season that anything we might achieve between now and the end of the season is a bonus. But it would still be nice to get that first repeat win, of course.”

Rob Huff: “The car was quick enough to be right there but I guessed I missed the boat. I had clutch problems at the beginning of the session and then some oversteer later on. The handling is perfect so to start only ninth is a bit frustrating.” Nicola Larini: “I couldn’t get the heat in my tyres at my last run, so that was a bit annoying. But the 50kgs of ballast I’m carrying are no excuse for being where I am, as Alain is carrying almost the same amount of weight and is right up there. I just couldn’t find a good balance and this track is very difficult to learn if you haven’t raced here many times before like Rob and Alain have. But obviously I’m very happy for Alain who has achieved a fantastic result. For me, tomorrow’s mission will be to try and finish in eighth at the end of race one.” Eric Nève: “This is a great result by Alain to be on pole in such a competitive session. Achieving pole by just 14/1000ths of a second shows how close it was at the front! I hope that tomorrow we can have the result as we had last year and that Alain can convert his fourth pole position of the season into a fourth win, as he has done the three previous times.”

BRANDS HATCH QUALIFYING RESULTS 1. A Menu Chevrolet Lacetti 1m33s032 2. J Thompson Alfa Romeo + 0s014 3. C Turkington BMW 320si + 0s064 4. T Monteiro SEAT Leon + 0s184 5. Y Muller SEAT Leon TDI + 0s237 9. R Huff Chevrolet Lacetti + 0s389 14. N Larini Chevrolet Lacetti + 0s588