Rate it!

0 votes

All the reaction to World Touring Car Championship qualifying at Imola.

Gabriele Tarquini (1st): "From memory this is my first home pole position but then again my memory is not great! Pole doesn't give you extra points but it does give you a chance to lead and avoid incidents. We don't need to win every race but like we showed in Oschersleben we need to score at every race. With a bad weekend you can lose everything and I still believe the championship will be decided on the last corner of the last race. This really is my home race as I live close by and people from my town come to watch me. It will be a great atmosphere."

Yvan Muller (2nd): "It's good to be back in Q2 especially after the last two events. Everyone had bad times and I hope my bad period has finished for this season. We showed in qualifying how we can work together and this is not easy to manage. There will be no fighting between me and Gabriele (Tarquini) tomorrow because we are looking at the Manufacturers Championship. For me it is important to stay in contention for the Drivers' Championship but we will play for that in Macau."

Rickard Rydell (3rd): "It is very important for us to do well here as we have less of an advantage at Okayama. Slipstreaming is risky if you get too close especially as it is slippery here, on the first chicane in particular. But we worked well and practiced our tactics in the free practice sessions. Tomorrow the aim is for Gabriele (Tarquini) and Yvan (Muller) to go ahead and I will have to work hard to defend third place."

Rob Huff (4th): "I am very happy with the result. It was an atypical Q1 session, because of the early red flag, which spoiled my first run. But the three of us made it to Q2, where Nicola (Larini) gave me quite a good hand with slipstreaming and helped me setting a time in second row. I think we are in a good position to go for some good points tomorrow".

Nicola Larini (9th): "The strategy we adopted in the team to tow each other with slipstreaming worked well, at least for Rob, who got the expected result. My runs were a little bit more difficult because of traffic but all in all, I am very satisfied with the car and the result and tomorrow I will be aiming at a good result in race two."

Alain Menu (10th): "It was great to get into the top 10 in Q1 but frustrating not to improve my position in Q2. There was an engine problem that prevented me from running in Q2 and we will have to change the engine overnight, so I will lose ten positions on the grid. It's going to be a tough day tomorrow to move forward enough to get into the points but I will do my best."

Stefano D'Aste (14th): "It was very difficult here as the track conditions are dirty which makes it slippery and creates problems with traction. To be honest I thought Tom (Coronel) or one of the other front wheel drive cars would be on pole. Tomorrow rain is forecast which would make things even more tricky for the BMW cars."

WTCC Imola LIVE from 11:30 on Sunday on British Eurosport (Sky 410 / Virgin Media 521); Also available on your PC via the Eurosport Player - click on the link under the picture to subscribe

Eurosport