Tom Chilton ends team-mate Muller’s pole run in the USA
Tom Chilton has ended RML team-mate Yvan Muller’s run of pole positions in the WTCC at Sonoma Raceway by taking his first career pole position in the USA with a last gasp lap.
Chilton left it to his final run to deprive his team-mate, who was fastest in FP2 and in the first segment of qualifying, to grab pole position at a scorching Sonoma Raceway circuit.
The 28-year-old set a time of 1:45.583, with a best time in the first sector, whilst Muller was fastest of all in the final sector but was unable to outpace his team-mate, and saw his run of consecutive pole positions in the 2013 WTCC season end at five.
Tiago Monteiro was third fastest for Honda, whilst team-mate Gabriele Tarquini only set one run in Q2 to go tenth fastest and grab pole position for the reversed grid second race at Sonoma Raceway.
Chilton’s pole position came despite an off a Turn 2 in the first part of qualifying, but managed to avoid contact with the barriers and return to the pits without damage.
Münnich Motorsport’s Marc Basseng and Proteam’s Mehdi Bennani both made last minute improvements in Q1 to knock ROAL’s Tom Coronel and Wiechers-Sport’s Fredy Barth out of the all-important top twelve, but ended up only 11th and 12th in Q2 which will be their starting positions in both of tomorrow’s races.
Alex MacDowall secured pole position in the Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy with fifth for bamboo-engineering, just behind Pepe Oriola’s Tuenti Racing Chevrolet.
James Nash qualified sixth for bamboo-engineering, with Norbert Michelisz’s Zengo Honda seventh and Rob Huff eighth for Münnich Motorsport, though Michelisz will drop to the back of the grid after an engine change in his Honda Civic.
The first race takes place at 11:50 PST on Sunday.
