Pole for Huff ahead of Muller and Menu brings Manufacturers’ title closer
MACAU, 20th November 2010 – Chevrolet dominated the decisive second qualification sessionin Macau, which had to be postponed to Saturday morning, as the delay accumulated inyesterday’s programme prevented completion before darkness fell. There will be three Cruzes inthe first three positions of the grid tomorrow, an ideal premise to secure the Manufacturers’ titleand try to bring home also the runner-up position in the Drivers’ championship, where YvanMuller is already out of reach and Rob Huff a strong contender for the vice-champion title.
It was precisely Rob Huff who took pole today, exactly as last year, ahead of Yvan Muller andAlain Menu, after Michelisz was imposed a 5-grid positions sanction, and lost the benefit of hissecond-fastest lap time. The excellent day of the Chevrolets was completed by the 9th position ofthe privately-run Chevrolet Lacetti of Bamboo Engineering driven by Darryl O’Young, who wasthe fastest among Independent contenders. In his home track, the Hong Kong driver made it tothe Q2 for the first time and still is in contention for the Independents’ title.
• QUOTES
Rob Huff (1st): “What a nice result for the team this is! The Cruze and the RML team were simplyfantastic today and this excellent qualifying result is the best way to close the season. It was anunusual and not easy qualifying session, with a full night in-between the two sessions, but weproved our competitiveness, and are in an ideal situation for tomorrow’s races. We couldn’t askfor more, especially not in these conditions. It’s not easy to do a Q2 so early in the morning,without previous practice, and being basically obliged to be quick straight away as you jump intothe car and mount new tires”.
Yvan Muller (2nd): “I am really happy with this result, especially after the little drama I had in thefirst fast lap attempt. I was going quite fast and probably got towed a little bit by the car in front ofme at the braking for the Lisboa corner. I got into the corner too fast and hit the wall, luckily nottoo hard. I’m told this is the first time this season that I touch a barrier out of a mistake of myown... After that, I took no risks, repairs were done quickly and could still do second-fastest”.Alain Menu (3rd) : “It was a positive qualifying session for the three of us, I am quite happy withthe balance of the car and with my performance in the second run. Maybe, I could have done aslightly better time, but not as good as Rob’s”.
Eric Nève: “Finishing 1-2-3 in the last qualifying session of the season, exactly the samepositions we had in the very first race of the year in Curitiba, simply proves our competitivenessand our consistency throughout the entire year. There is little more than we could say, exceptthat we are tremendously happy!”
MACAU QUALIFYING RESULTS1. R Huff Chevrolet Cruze 2m31s3212. Y Muller Chevrolet Cruze + 0s4523. A Menu Chevrolet Cruze + 0s5414. T Monteiro SEAT León TDI + 0s6255. A Farfus BMW 320si + 0s9019. D O’Young Chevrolet Lacetti + 1s864
