Defending World Touring Car champion Gabriele Tarquini has taken an all-important pole position for SEAT on their Spanish home soil ahead of Sunday’s double-race header at the Ricardo Tomo circuit.
Tarquini defied popular expectation that Chevrolet would take a 1-2-3 sweep in qualifying with a blistering early lap in the second phase of qualifying to hold out in the challenge against the blue Cruzes.
Robert Huff joins Tarquini on the front row of the grid, with the other Chevrolets of Yvan Muller and Alain Menu right behind them on the second row.
The third row will be headed by the next-quickest SEAT of Tiago Monteiro, who qualified just quicker than team-mate Tom Coronel.
Despite the Dutch driver posting the sixth-quickest overall, he will take a ten-place grid penalty into the opening race by dint of an engine change this weekend. Instead, this promoted Spanish favourite Jordi Gené onto the third row, ahead of Fredy Barth, who posted the fastest time overall in Q1.
Curiously, the works BMWs continued their poor pace into qualifying proper, and lined up slowest of all in Q2, with Andy Priaulx only scraping into Q2 by 0.026 seconds over Michel Nykjær.
Norbert Michelisz could be another driver who may have to face a ten-place grid drop, 
with his engine letting go in the final minutes of Q1, and ensuring that he wouldn’t be a part of proceedings in Q2.
The Independent Trophy runners occupied the slowest eight positions in Q1, but it was Marc Carol who carried some local pride by proving quickest of all the regular runners. The Valencia-born driver qualified 14th-quickest for Sunday’s rolling start race.
FIA 2010 WTCC Valencia Qualifying Results:
| Driver | Car | Q1 Time | Q2 Time | ||
| 1. | Gabriele Tarquini |  |
SEAT León TDI | 1:44.727 | 1:44.111 |
| 2. | Robert Huff |  |
Chevrolet Cruze LT | 1:44.937 | 1:44.193 |
| 3. | Yvan Muller |  |
Chevrolet Cruze LT | 1:44.922 | 1:44.258 |
| 4. | Alain Menu |  |
Chevrolet Cruze LT | 1:44.710 | 1:44.439 |
| 5. | Tiago Monteiro |  |
SEAT León TDI | 1:44.869 | 1:44.468 |
| 6. | Tom Coronel* |  |
SEAT León TDI | 1:44.789 | 1:44.525 |
| 7. | Jordi Gené |  |
SEAT León TDI | 1:44.897 | 1:44.773 |
| 8. | Fredy Barth | |
SEAT León TDI | 1:44.604 | 1:45.070 |
| 9. | Augusto Farfus |  |
BMW 320si | 1:44.823 | 1:45.205 |
| 10. | Andy Priaulx | |
BMW 320si | 1:45.313 | 1:45.416 |
| 11. | Michel Nykjær |  |
SEAT León TDI | 1:45.339 | |
| 12. | Kristian Poulsen | |
BMW 320si | 1:45.607 | |
| 13. | Norbert Michelisz |  |
SEAT León TDI | 1:45.741 | |
| 14. | Marc Carol (I) | |
SEAT León TFSI | 1:45.837 | |
| 15. | Darryl O’Young (I) |  |
Chevrolet Lacetti | 1:46.017 | |
| 16. | Sergio Hernández (I) | |
BMW 320si | 1:46.116 | |
| 17. | Mehdi Bennani (I) |  |
BMW 320si | 1:46.419 | |
| 18. | Franz Engstler (I) |  |
BMW 320si | 1:46.717 | |
| 19. | Stefano D’Aste (I) | |
BMW 320si | 1:46.783 | |
| 20. | Yukinori Taniguchi (I) |  |
Chevrolet Lacetti | 1:46.997 | |
| 21. | Andrey Romanov (I)* |  |
BMW 320si | 1:47.344 |
* Denotes 10-place grid penalty for an engine change.
[Original image via FIA WTCC official site]
Richard Bailey
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