Huff 4th
Third pole for the Swiss, while Toshi Arai will start from P16 in his WTCC debut
Three Cruzes in the top 4 and a completely blue first row is the result of an exciting qualifying session at Suzuka, in the WTCC’s first visit to Japan’s landmark track. Alain Menu took pole position, his third of the season, confirming his current good pace, ahead of championship leader Yvan Muller by a slim margin of 49 thousands of a second. Rob Huff will start right behind Yvan, from row 2, having set the fourth fastest time. Toshi Arai, in the fourth RML run Cruze, continued his fast learning curve of touring car racing and missed Q2 by only two tenths.
The qualifying session took place in dry conditions, but after the morning’s rain, the trackwas still quite greasy. The grid for Race 2 will also see the Bamboo Engineering Cruze ofHong Kong driver Darryl O’Young starting from pole position thanks to the reverse grid.Muller and Huff, the two main contenders in the title battle, will start from row 2, with Menu inseventh.
The WTCC received a warm welcome today from Japanese fans, who are looking forward totomorrow’s races. The fight for the drivers’ title between the three Chevrolet boys willcertainly be one of the main attractions as well as local hero Toshi Arai!
• QUOTESAlain Menu (1st): “I am very happy with pole position. I posted my fastest time in my firstattempt with my first set of tires, and it wasn’t a perfect lap, as I ran a little bit wide in thesequence of turns 7 and 8. I could never imagine that that lap was going to mean poleposition at the end of the session! To start from pole will be crucial tomorrow as this is acircuit where overtaking in race conditions will be difficult, and a good start can simply meanvictory. I will focus in doing the best I can and scoring a maximum of points, not thinkingabout the championship at all, as my chances are realistically small. But I won’t give up untilmathematics say they’re gone!”
Yvan Muller (2nd): “First of all, I must congratulate Alain, he did an impressive job today! Iwasn’t entirely happy with the balance of my car, so we did some changes in the set up inbetween the two sets of tires. There was some improvement, although the track was quitetreacherous, but could not beat Alain’s time. Still, the most important is that I will start aheadof Rob, which is key towards the championship.”
Rob Huff (4th): “The car felt quite good, but track conditions were tricky. There is little more Icould do, the pace to be upfront wasn’t there today. When I was told on the radio I had lostthe third position, I pushed again but my tires were almost finished.”
Toshi Arai (16th): “I am continuing my learning process of touring car racing and qualifyingis certainly a very peculiar exercise. I improved my times constantly during Q1, but fell shorta couple of tenths from Q2, despite doing quite a good last lap behind Alain.”
