Farfus takes shock pole at Monza

Date published : 22 May 2010 - 14:45:18

Augusto Farfus took a surprise pole position for BMW in the World Touring Car qualifying session at Monza on Saturday.SEAT had been expected to dominate with the iconic circuit's long drags suiting the turbo diesel Leon, but problems with SEAT's slipstreaming train allowed BMW and Chevrolet the opportunity to pounce.All five SEATs were jeopardised when Gabriele Tarquini ran wide at the second Lesmo at the head of the queue and delayed all of his team-mates.Each team elected to run the 10-minute Q2 shootout on a single set of tyres, so even when the Leons re-aligned themselves for their next effort, the best of the tyres was gone.That meant the first runs for BMW and Chevrolet turned out to be crucial, and Farfus had posted the quickest time, just 0.025s faster than Rob Huff.The formation continues on row two with Andy Priaulx's BMW heading Alain Menu, with Yvan Muller fifth in the third Cherolet.The SEATs then followed with Gene ahead of Tarquini, Norbert Michelisz's Zengo-Dension Leon, Fredy Barth and Tiago Monteiro.Tom Coronel's SEAT was the only high-profile scalp in Q1, missing out on a place in qualifying's finale after spending much of the session in the pits. He got out in time to complete just one flying lap, which put him 13th.Darryl O'Young will start at the head of the independents' class, from the sixth row of the grid.Pos Driver Car Q1 Q2 1. Augusto Farfus BMW 2m01.126s 2m00.672s 2. Rob Huff Chevrolet 2m00.775s 2m00.697s 3. Andy Priaulx BMW 2m00.941s 2m00.807s 4. Alain Menu Chevrolet 2m01.091s 2m00.899s 5. Yvan Muller Chevrolet 2m00.834s 2m01.078s 6. Jordi Gene SEAT 2m01.629s 2m01.400s 7. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT 2m00.690s 2m01.544s 8. Norbert Michelisz SEAT 2m01.006s 2m01.731s 9. Fredy Barth SEAT 2m01.581s 2m01.926s10. Tiago Monteiro SEAT 2m00.862s 2m01.927s11. Michel Nykj? SEAT 2m01.765s12. Darryl O'Young Chevrolet 2m02.186s13. Tom Coronel SEAT 2m02.235s14. Harry Vaulkhard Chevrolet 2m02.384s15. Leonel Pern? Chevrolet 2m02.441s16. Mehdi Bennani BMW 2m02.829s17. Kristian Poulsen BMW 2m02.834s18. Franz Engstler BMW 2m02.983s19. Stefano D'Aste BMW 2m03.276s20. Sergio Hern?ez BMW 2m04.260s21. Andrey Romanov BMW 2m04.327s22. Fabio Fabiani BMW 2m08.144s