Huff (2nd) misses the pole by an insignificant margin, Muller and Menu to share second row
It was at the same time a very positive and a somehow frustrating qualifying for the Cruzes today at Valencia, as the three cars managed to end the day in the top four, but the pole position escaped from Rob Huff’s hand by only 82 thousandths of a second. Yvan Muller and Alain Menu were not far behind Rob and will share the second row on the grid tomorrow.
Still, the Chevrolet team were happy to see the Cruze is competitive on the twisty Circuit Ricardo Tormo in warm and stormy weather and are confident that it will be able to sign off a good result in tomorrow’s last European event of the WTCC. This would allow Chevrolet to head towards the final two rounds in Asia as leader of both championships.
QUOTES
Rob Huff (2nd): “It was a difficult qualifying session, as the track was extremely slippery in Q1. This has always been one of the most difficult circuits for us, given the very varied type of corners, but the entire team has done a great job to find the proper set-up for Q2, after a not great Q1 Yvan and myself were able to climb positions in the rankings in the very last run of Q2”.
Yvan Muller (3rd): “Second row is not a bad result, I had a somewhat difficult qualifying session, but managed to make a good lap, although not perfect, in my last run. Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day, as our two main opponents are one in pole and the other one ideally placed for race 2, but we will see during the races how to cope with this situation”.
Alain Menu (4th): «It’s a good result for the team, but it’s a pity I had a little problem with the gearbox in Q2, which prevented me to a second run in Q2”.
VALENCIA QUALIFYING RESULTS
1. G Tarquini SEAT León TDI 1m44s111
2. R Huff Chevrolet Cruze + 0s082
3. Y Muller Chevrolet Cruze + 0s147
4. A Menu Chevrolet Cruze + 0s328
5. T Monteiro SEAT León TDI + 0s357
