Muller grabs pole in action-packed WTCC qualifying

Yvan Muller will start the first WTCC race of the 2013 season from pole position after setting the fastest time (1:56.486) in Qualifying.

His time is a new qualifying lap record for Monza and nearly 1.5 seconds faster than the previous record set last year by Gabriele Tarquini. Behind the French driver on the grid will be two other Chevrolet Cruze cars of Tom Chilton and Alex MacDowall with the latter also the highest placed of the Yokohama Trophy contenders.Qualifying 1The season got off to a dramatic start when the SEAT of the reigning World Champion Rob Huff made contact with Fredy Barths BMW on the very first lap, leaving the Len stranded on the circuit with broken front left suspension. Once the red-flag period ended, it was Muller who set the early pace ahead of Michel Nykjr and Tom Chilton, but on lap 4 Aleksei Dudukalo collided with his LADA Sport Lukoil teammate James Thompson going into Turn 1 and so the Russian driver would play no further part in the session. Thompson, though, was able to limp back to the pits so his mechanics could repair the damage and so he could start Q2.The following drivers went through to Q2: Muller, Chilton, Nykjr, MacDowall, Oriola, Nash, Tarquini, OYoung, Basseng, Thompson, Monje, DAste.Qualifying 2Mullers pole-winning time occurred on only his second lap, with his RML teammate Tom Chilton (1:57.345) setting the second-fastest time on Lap 3. Alex MacDowall (1:57.685) was third quickest in the bamboo-engineering Cruze with Pepe Oriolas SEAT (1:57.833) the best non-Chevrolet. Tarquinis Castrol Honda Civic (1:57.946) rounded off the top five, with James Nash (1:58.005), Michel Nykjr (1:58.172), Marc Basseng (1:8.518), James Thompson (1:58.669) and Darryl OYoung (1:58.781) completing the top ten. Fernando Monje (1:58.814) was eleventh fastest and Stefano DAste (2:00.475) twelfth.Thanks to the reversed grid, it will be the BMW 320 TC of Darryl OYoung that will start Race 2 from pole position.

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