Alain Menu secured his second Pole Position of the season during qualifying ahead of round 17 of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship at Sonoma Raceway.
The Swiss driver, who arrived in California third overall in the drivers’ Championship set his session topping time right at the end of the 10 minute Q2, disposing the Lukoil Racing Team SEAT Leon of Gabriele Tarquini.
Menu’s Chevrolet team-mates, Yvan Muller and Rob Huff will line up third and fourth while top Yokohama Independent is Norbert Michelisz, who placed his Zengo Motorsport BMW 320TC 5th overall. Michelisz has a chance to extend his advantage as his nearest rival, Pepe Oriola, failed to make it out of Q1.
Rounding out the top ten is Alex MacDowall in the bamboo engineering Chevrolet Cruze, Tiago Monteiro in his final appearance for the SEAT Tuenti Racing Team, Franz Engstler in the Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW 320TC, Mehdi Bennani in the Proteam Motorsport BMW 320TC and Stefano D’Aste in the Wiechers-Sport BMW 320TC. D’Aste will start round 18 from Pole Position.
The first part of qualifying saw Muller and Tarquini trade fastest times with Huff going quickest for a brief moment after the restart. Tarquini’s Lukoil Racing Team team-mate Alexsei Dudukalo went off at the first corner and got beached, bringing out the red flags while he was recovered.
The biggest casualty of Q1 was Tom Coronel in the #15 ROAL Motorsport BMW 320TC, as he finished 20th overall after making a couple of mistakes on his final attempt. Debutant Robb Holland brings up the rear of the field in the second bamboo engineering Chevrolet Cruzes.
Muller has extended his Championship advantage over Huff by a point to 18 points after qualifying while Menu has closed the gap slightly.
Round 17 of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship gets underway at 20:20 GMT, 12:20 PST while round 18 gets under at 21:35 GMT, 13:35 PST. Both races will be shown live on Eurosport and Eurosport Player.