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Garbriele Tarquini took his third consecutive pole with a lap and fifth of the season after storming to a lap of one minute and 37.866 seconds in Okayama.

Priaulx will also start from the front line of the grid alongside Jorg Muller, who posted the third quickest time.

Title contenders Augusto Farfus and Yvan Muller will line up fifth and seventh respectively.

Qualifying one

All five SEAT Sport cars, along with the BMW cars of Priaulx, Muller and Farfus, comfortably lead the session, leaving only the final two places up for grabs.

And it was Robert Huff and Alain Menu, Chevrolet team-mates, who just edged out Sergio Hernandez by 0.143 seconds.

Tom Coronel took the Independent pole (12th overall), while James Thompson finished 13th in his LADA Priora.

Felix Porteiro finished 15th overall just three tenths ahead of team-mate Nobuteru Taniguchi who was quickly followed by fellow Japanese Seiji Ara, finishing in 20th.

Qualifying two

Muller took the top of the timesheets before being stunned by Tarquini and forced down the third when Priaulx snuck in between them, just 0.050s off pole position.

Rydell took the fourth spot with Jordi Gene sixth, Monteiro eighth, Huff ninth and Menu tenth.

All 10 drivers set their best lap times on their final lap of the session making for a frantic finish to qualifying.

Watch WTCC Okayama LIVE from 04:30 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.

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