Augusto Farfus managed to beat Alain Menu to pole position in the qualifying at Brands Hatch, but he had to set a new lap record to do it. With a time of 1:32.794 he shattered the track record for Super 2000 cars by two and a half tenths of a second and claimed his (and BMW’s) second pole of the season after
Pau. However Menu’s second position was only 0.002 seconds behind him.
There were British smiles for Chevrolet as Robert Huff took third position in an extremely closely fought session. Fellow countryman and reigning world champion Andy Priaulx put his BMW Team UK car into fourth to make an all British second row for the first race. Jörg Müller popped his BMW onto the third row with the fastest SEAT Sport driver, Yvan Muller in sixth. The third Chevrolet of Nicola Larini took seventh position with Alessandro Zanardi behind him in eighth.
SUNRED Engineering’s Tom Coronel took ninth position despite running wide into the gravel on one of his quick laps. Newcomer Volvo driver Robert Dahlgren continued his successful apprenticeship to round off the top ten.
After his nightmare weekend in Portugal, the third British driver, James Thompson, qualified thirteenth in his Honda Accord. Championship leader Gabriele Tarquini only managed to qualify in eighteenth position as he was forced to abort his fastest lap after going wide and throwing up some gravel.
Sergio Hernández took pole position for the Independents’ trophy, and twelfth overall, beating Pierre-Yves Corthals.
Hernández’s team-mate Stefano D’Aste continued to have problems in staying on the track and went wide twice on the final corner. Aytaç Biter also had another spin, but managed to rejoin the track, unlike Félix Porteiro who embedded his BMW into the tyre-barrier on the final lap at turn 1.
PRIAULX IN FORMULA ONE SHOW
The pearcing howl of the BMW Formula One engine broke the lunch break’s silence at Brands Hatch when triple WTCC champion Andy Priaulx drove the powerful machine around the track for a short demonstration.
Priaulx completed a few laps before simulating a start in front of the BMW hospitality and perform a few doughnuts at the end of the pit straight.
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