Oschersleben: Series qualifying report

FARFUS TAKES POLE AS RAIN DISTRUPTS QUALIFYING

Augusto Farfus (1:38.070) claimed his second pole position of the season at Oschersleben today, the day after the Brazilian celebrated his 27th birthday.

As the rain began to fall in Q2 Farfus put in two clean laps to take pole ahead of Chevrolet's Rob Huff (1:38.176) and his BMW Team RBM teammate Andy Priaulx (1:38.186).

Norbert Michelisz (1:38.634) was the best rookie in fifth, but will start 15th after a 10-position grid penalty imposed following the previous event in Brno.

Stefano D'Aste (1:36.881) was the fastest Independent in 13th ahead of Sergio Hernandez (1:37.282) and Franz Engstler (1:37.309) who finished 14th and 15th respectively.

Q1 -- On a dry track, the drivers were all pushing hard during the first part of qualifying with Fabio Fabiani spinning through the gravel at the Hotel-Kurve, Stefano D'Aste losing the back end of his car out of the Bauer-Kurve and spinning across the track, and Tiago Monteiro bringing out the red flag after hitting the tyres at the Hoyer-Schikane.

When the session resumed for the final three minutes, Norbert Michelisz was the big winner moving up to fifth overall and knocking fellow rookie Michel Nykjær out of the top ten. Fredy Barth was pushing for a top ten slot when he spun into the gravel at turn six.

Rob Huff was quickest of the session, his 1:35.518 breaking the lap record he set in 2008 by 0.16-seconds.

Huff, Gabriele Tarquini, Jordi Gene, Yvan Muller, Michelisz, Alain Menu, Farfus, Priaulx, Tom Coronel and Monteiro were the drivers going forward to Q2, but with Monteiro parked out on track only the first nine competed in the final ten minutes.

Q2 -- With the rain starting to fall, the pressure was on in the second part of the qualifying and Augusto Farfus ended on top due to putting in a couple of quick clean laps at the start to end 0.106 seconds ahead of Huff.

Farfus was quickest after the first flying laps and remained on top as the action began behind. Muller ran wide at the chicane and Michelisz went off at the Mibau Kurve. As the rain began to fall harder Huff ran wide and collected his teammate Menu as he rejoined with the pair then both spinning out. Tarquini also hit the barrier at turn five as the red flag came out.

Despite running off Huff will start second ahead of Priaulx with Chevrolet's Menu in fourth. Tarquini (1:38.796) will start fifth ahead of Tom Coronel (1:38.810), Yvan Muller (1:38.869) and Gene (1:39.994) who made a mistake on his first flying lap.

BMW STATEMENT ON TOURING CAR RACING

While attending the WTCC event in Oschersleben, BMW Motorsport Director Mario Theissen released the following statement: "We said at the beginning of the year that we will continue offering touring cars in the future. In detail, we announced the development of a 1.6-litre Di turbocharged engine. This will be run in the MINI Countryman WRC from next year and will be available for BMW S2000 race cars as well. This weekend we offer the BMW privateer teams in WTCC an upgrade kit, including the new engine a gearbox, as well as the necessary modifications to the race car. With this kit, the BMW 320si complies with the future WTCC regulations. Therefore our customer teams will have the opportunity to continue running existing cars. A decision concerning BMW's entire motor racing programme will be made later."

-source: wtcc