Puebla: BMW Teams qualifying report

Farfus claims pole position for BMW in Puebla - Priaulx comes second.

Puebla, 21st March 2009. Thanks to an excellent team result, BMW successfully fought back after a difficult start to the 2009 FIA World Touring Car Championship. At the "Autodromo Miguel E. Abed" in Puebla (MX), BMW Team Germany's Augusto Farfus (BR) set a best time of 1:37.682 minutes in the second part of qualifying, and secured pole position for the third race of the season. BMW Team UK driver Andy Priaulx (GB) was just 0.045 seconds slower than his fellow BMW driver, claiming second and making it an all BMW front row in Puebla.

Five BMW drivers made it into the top-ten at the 3.240-kilometre track. Farfus' team- mate, Jorg Muller (DE) came seventh. BMW privateer Felix Porteiro (ES) finished eighth for Proteam Motorsport. BMW Team Italy-Spain's Sergio Hernandez (ES) managed to make it into "Q2" for the first time this year, finishing tenth, while only his team-mate, Alessandro Zanardi (IT)l failed to make the cut and had to make do with 12th on tomorrow's grid.

"Following the difficult races in Brazil we couldn't expect this result," Farfus commented after claiming the seventh pole position of his WTCC career. "But we worked hard and were absolutely determined to score some points here in Puebla. This mission will hopefully be easier now I am starting from pole. Of course I will also try to keep the lead throughout the race, although this won't be easy. It's great to have another BMW driver in Andy Priaulx beside me on the front row. A big thank you to the whole team."

As early as in the first part of qualifying Farfus proved just how talented he was. One run was enough for him to set a 1:37.981-minute lap - the fastest time of the weekend up to then - and to take the lead. Along with Priaulx, Muller, Hernandez and Porteiro advanced easily into the second qualifying session. All the BMW drivers apart from Hernandez were able to improve on their lap times in "Q2". While Farfus completed his pole position lap at the start of the session, Priaulx went out halfway through the 10-minutes, only missing out on beating Farfus' lap time by fractions of a second.

"We needed this result," said Priaulx. "The season opener in Curitiba was a big disappointment for us. Therefore it's great to start from the front row here. The grip level is much higher than in previous years, which suits our cars. In fact, we were more than three seconds faster than in last year's qualifying."

Now the BMW national teams are in a promising position to improve on their previous results in Puebla. Last year Priaulx was the only BMW driver who managed to score a championship point on the slowest circuit on the calendar. The third race of the FIA World Touring Car Championship will start on 12:20hrs local time (18:20hrs GMT) on Sunday, race two will get underway at 15:50hrs (21:50hrs GMT).

-credit: bmw