Curitiba: Qualifying notes

JÖRG MÜLLER GRABS POLE

Jörg Müller of BMW Team Germany claimed the first pole position of the season.Qualifying became the battle of the BMW men for top spot. Jörg Müller occupied provisional pole for the majority of the session before Andy Priaulx stole it on his last lap.

Seconds later Augusto Farfus stormed to the top but his joy was to be short lived as Müller reclaimed pole in the dying seconds with a lap of 1:24.769. This demoted Farfus by just 0.055 seconds.

The BMW domination extended beyond the top three as Félix Porteiro secured fourth place on the last lap of his first WTCC qualifying session.

Fifth and sixth places were occupied by SEAT Sport drivers. Gabriele Tarquini posted a 1:25.173 while Yvan Muller's best lap was 0.155 behind that; however the Frenchman's qualifying time is currently under investigations because he cut over the grass at turn 2.

In the position below was Robert Huff from Chevrolet; his last and best lap was 1:25.479. Tom Coronel and Jordi Gené qualified eighth and ninth while Alessandro Zanardi completed the top ten. Alfa Romeo's James Thompson will start from position fifteen tomorrow.

The nine fastest drivers qualified were covered by only seven tenths.

In the Independents' category, Pierre-Yves Corthals from the new team Exagon Engineering, set the best time of 1:25.857 in his SEAT León.

His competitor, Luca Rangoni of Proteam Motorsport posted exactly the same time but will line up behind the Belgian, having posted the time later in the session.

UPDATE ON CURITIBA QUALIFYINGYVAN MULLER DEMOTED

Yvan Muller was demoted from 6th to 9th on the grid for tomorrow's Race 1, after his fastest lap of 1:25.328 was disallowed by the stewards because the Frenchman had cut onto the grass at Turn 2.

Muller was qualified according to his second fastest lap: 1:25.739 and he slipped behind Huff, Coronel and Gené.

COLCIAGO OUT OF HOSPITAL

Roberto Colciago spent the night in the Curitiba hospital further to his crash in yesterday's test session and was discharged this morning.

The Italian driver is suffering from contusions to the ribs and from labyrinthitis that causes him to be in a daze.

Colciago is due to rejoin the championship for the second race meeting, at Zandvoort, on May 6th.

-credit: wtcc