Huff grabs pole as title rivals collide

Date published : 20 Nov 2009 - 10:02:47

Chevrolet's Rob Huff came through a chaotic qualifying session for the World Touring Car finale in Macau to take pole position on an afternoon when the title hopes of SEAT duo Gabriele Tarquini and Yvan Muller were hit after they were involved a freak accident.Tarquini and Muller both comfortably made it through to the Q2 shoot-out session, but they failed to set a laptime after they got caught up in a crash early on.Muller appeared to lose control of his SEAT on cement dust that had been laid down at Faraway following a crash involving Stefano D'Aste and James Thompson in Q1. Moments later, and unsighted by the dust, Tarquini smashed into him - before the pair were then hit again by Alain Menu. Muller was taken away from the scene in an ambulance, but gave the thumbs up to indicate he was okay.All three cars were badly damaged in the crash, although the teams have an extra day for repairs with the first of the two WTCC races not taking place until Sunday.With the SEAT duo out of action, the way was left open for the other title contender Augusto Farfus to take pole position - but he could not quite manage it.Farfus moved to the top of the timesheet with one minute of qualifying remaining, but Huff went even quicker on his final lap to secure pole position - shortly before Andy Priaulx snatched the second spot.Huff was overjoyed by the result - especially because the numerous red flags and delays had made it hard for drivers to find their rhythm."I've never in my life experienced a qualifying session like this," he said. "The track was dark at the end and you couldn't see anything. It was incredible. I've never done a pole on my third lap before, so it is just fantastic for Chevrolet. I'm really pleased."Jordi Gene will start behind Farfus in fourth, with Tiago Monteiro fifth and Jorg Muller sixth. Yvan Muller, Tarquini, Menu and Rickard Rydell will fill out the rest of the top ten.Pos Driver Car Q1 Q2 1. Rob Huff Chevrolet 2m31.282s 2m32.141s 2. Andy Priaulx BMW 2m31.734s 2m32.483s 3. Augusto Farfus BMW 2m31.505s 2m33.033s 4. Jordi Gene SEAT 2m31.171s 2m33.136s 5. Tiago Monteiro SEAT 2m31.357s 2m33.322s 6. Jorg Muller BMW 2m31.724s 2m34.091s 7. Yvan Muller SEAT 2m31.241s no time 8. Gabriele Tarquini SEAT 2m31.150s no time 9. Alain Menu Chevrolet 2m31.842s no time10. Rickard Rydell SEAT 2m31.859s no time11. Alex Zanardi BMW 2m32.059s12. Nicola Larini Chevrolet 2m32.181s13. Tom Coronel SEAT 2m32.330s14. Felix Porteiro BMW 2m33.581s15. Sergio Hernandez BMW 2m33.812s16. Andre Couto SEAT 2m34.047s17. Jaap van Lagen Lada 2m34.214s18. Tom Boardman SEAT 2m34.242s19. Franz Engstler BMW 2m34.615s20. James Thompson Lada 2m36.141s21. Nobuteru Taniguchi BMW 2m36.431s22. Kristian Poulsen BMW 2m36.473s23. Takayuki Aoki BMW 2m37.895s24. Henry Ho BMW 2m41.318s25. Jo Merszei BMW 2m42.626s26. Kit Meng Lei BMW 2m44.667s27. Liu Lic Ka BMW 2m47.747s28. Stefano D'Aste BMW no time