Yvan Muller claimed pole position for the opening round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship at Curitiba in Brazil, heading Rickard Rydell as the SEAT squad locked out the front row.

The 38-year-old Frenchman hit the top of the timesheets halfway through the 30-minute session in a time of 1:24.295 - knocking Rydell down to second by 0.109 seconds.

And, despite the best efforts of the rest of the field, last season's championship runner-up could not be de-throned and took the second pole of his career.

"It's amazing," Muller told Eurosport. "I'm surprised because I didn't have a lot of testing all winter.

"But I was feeling confident all week and this is the result. The race though, will be much harder in this heat because we have extra weight in the car because it is a diesel, and that will make keeping the tyres in good shape very important."

Muller did just that during qualifying as he used only two of his four allocated sets of rubber while most of his rivals took three. It should give him a big advantage on raceday, especially with Rydell able to protect him at the start.

Local hero Augusto Farfus headed the second row for Schnitzer BMW - and was fortunate to avoid contact with his spinning team-mate Jorg Muller exiting turn three in the dying minutes, while Gabriele Tarquini completed the second row to make it three SEATs in the top four.

Nicola Larini was the best of the Chevrolet drivers as he put his Lacetti in fifth on the grid with Jorg Muller and the fourth SEAT of Portuguese driver Tiago Monteiro next up.

Britain's Rob Huff made it two Chevrolets in the top eight, which was some recompense for the RML-run team after Alain Menu crashed heavily after understeering off at the final corner and bringing out the red flags for ten minutes.

Menu was mercifully uninjured in the 90 mph accident, but his mechanics face a tough task to ready his machine for both races.

Completing the top ten were Jordi Gene in his SEAT and practice pace-setter Tom Coronel in his SUNRED-run example.

Triple world champion Andy Priaulx endured a disappointing session. The Briton struggled to find a useful low-fuel set-up aboard his RBM BMW and will start back in 12th. He was not too worried though.

"In Macau last year I started from 12th place, and after the two races I was a triple world champion," said Priaulx. "Therefore I certainly will not give up fighting for a good result early in the season.

"On my last flyer I made a mistake in turn seven, which cost me a better position. We have not yet come to terms with the low grip level at this circuit. Now we will work hard to eliminate the problems."

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Jamie O'Leary / Eurosport