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Yvan Muller on his way to pole position
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Muller Takes First Pole of The Year in Brno's All Cruze Front Row
Huff 2nd and Menu 4th complete another strong qualifying performance
2011-06-18
The three Chevrolet Cruzes qualified in the top 4 today in Brno ahead of tomorrow’s Race of the Czech Republic, with Yvan Muller and Huff securing the first row and finishing fourth fastest. It is the first pole position of the year for the reigning WTCC World Champion Yvan Muller, who drove a perfect lap in Q2 after being the fastest driver in both of the morning’s free practice sessions.
With regard to the starting grid of Race 2, which is based on the reversed best times of Q1, the Cruzes adopted a conservative approach and will start from positions 6 (Menu), 8 (Muller) and 9 (Huff). On the beautiful and technical Czech track the RML prepared Cruzes proved once again to be the most competitive cars this year, which bodes well for tomorrow’s races. Some drops of rain disturbed the final minutes of Q2, but the weather forecast for tomorrow predicts dry races.
The objective for the Chevrolet team will be to bring home more wins and heavy points and consolidate its leading position in both championships, thus emulating last week’s achievement of their “cousin cars”, the Corvettes, who took a double win in the GT Pro and GT Am categories at the prestigious 24 Hours of . Today, the Cruzed starred not only in , but also in , as Rickard Rydell won the stellar event of the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, in Göteborg’s street circuit, after posting the pole yesterday.
· QUOTES
Yvan Muller (1st): “Posting the first pole of the year makes me very happy, of course. It was about time and this confirms the positive trend initiated in with my first 2011 win, after a start of the season that was not up to my expectations. But I am even more satisfied with the way we worked today with my team, it was just perfect. Maybe we had put too much pressure on ourselves after the world title, but now we have really found an excellent working method. My lap in Q2 was perfect and the set-up of the car was brilliant, there is nothing I would change if I had to start this qualifying session again!”
Rob Huff (2nd): “I am happy with my result and the way the car performed. I did a slight mistake in sector 1 during my fast lap in Q2, but I don’t think I could have done much better. In Q1, we maybe took an excessively conservative approach and found ourselves to be too quick, but I don’t think this a major problem and tomorrow we should be in a position to go for big points in both races.”
Alain Menu (4th): “I am a little bit disappointed as I think I could have done a little bit better in Q2, but no drama. In my first fast lap, I went wide on the kerb in one of the final corners and this cost me some tenths and in the other fast lap I couldn’t push to the limit, as it started to rain and some sections were slippery. This said, I don’t think anyone could have beaten Yvan today. In Q1, I am in the middle of the grid, which is where I aimed to be. The car is ok, I still have some over steer at the entrance of the corners, so we will work on that tonight.”
QUALIFYING RESULTS (RACE 1 GRID)
1. Y Muller Chevrolet Cruze 2m08s884
2. R Huff Chevrolet Cruze + 0s372
3. T Coronel BMW320 TC + 0s833
4. A Menu Chevrolet Cruze + 0s946
5. N Michelisz BMW 320 TC + 1s037
9. D O’Young Chevrolet Cruze + 1s675
RACE 2 GRID POSITIONS
1. F Engstler BMW 320 TC (2m10s839)
2. T Coronel BMW 320 TC (2m10s831)
3. G Tarquini SEAT SR León 1.6T (2m10s729)
4. D O’Young Chevrolet Cruze (2m10s505)
5. N Michelisz BMW 320 TC (2m10s486)
6. A Menu Chevrolet Cruze (2m10s466)
8. Y Muller Chevrolet Cruze (2m10s384)
9. R Huff Chevrolet Cruze (2m10s375)
