27.03.2004 GABRIELE TARQUINI AND AUGUSTO FARFUS JR FEND OFF THE BMW RUNNERS TO MAKE IT AN ALL ALFA ROMEO FRONT ROW IN MONZA

Augusto Farfus Jr on his was to second place during qualifying at MonzaGabriele Tarquini is the first pole-setter for the 2004 FIA European Touring Car Championship. The reigning champion literally smashed last year’s pole position time, improving it by two seconds.

His young team-mate Augusto Farfus caused the greatest surprise of the day, setting the second fastest-time, and relegating the two Müllers to the second row of the grid.

The sun was finally shining when the session started, and immediately the Autodelta trio shot along the main straight to set the provisional fastest times; all of them under the 2-minute mark.

Tarquini’s 1:58.905 was already a new track record for the Super 2000 cars, while Fabrizio Giovanardi and Farfus clocked 1:59.642 and 1:59.793 respectively. The young Brazilian managed to improve already on the following laps, moving up to second with the time of 1:59.614.

After a few warm-up laps, the BMW Team Deutschland’s drivers started to push in a close formation. One after each other they crossed the finishing line, setting the fourth and fifth-fastest laps at 1:59.806 for Dirk Müller and 2:00.073 for Jörg Müller. A few moments later Dirk stole the provisional second position from Farfus, with a lap in 1:59.386.

However, the Autodelta men answered immediately, as Tarquini and Farfus went off to improve again their times. The Italian consolidated his pole position with an astonishing 1:58.395, meaning an improvement of two seconds compared to last year’s pole set by Jörg Müller. Farfus went down to 1:59.156, recovering his second place for good. Tomorrow they will share the front row on the starting grid for the first race, while the Müllers will share the second thanks to Jörg’s final rush, which enabled him to go also under the two minutes (1:59.612), moving up to fourth and demoting Giovanardi to fifth. The latter will share the third row with Andy Priaulx.

Tom Coronel topped the list of the Independent drivers, on and a half tenths ahead of his closest Independents Cup competitor, Oregon Team’s Salvatore Tavano, who qualified 11th, behind Antonio García's BMW.
FIA EUROPEAN TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP RD 1, MONZA: QUALIFYING
POS NO DRIVER NAT CAR TIME LAPS GAP AV.SPEED
1   1   Gabriele TARQUINI   ITA   Alfa Romeo 156 S2000   1:58.395   9       176.14  
 2   3   Augusto FARFUS JR.   BRA   Alfa Romeo 156 S2000   1:59.156   10   0.761    175.02  
 3   43   Dirk MULLER   GER   BMW 320i   1:59.386   10   0.991    174.68  
 4   42   Jorg MULLER   GER   BMW 320i   1:59.612   10   1.217    174.35  
 5   2   Fabrizio GIOVANARDI   ITA   Alfa Romeo 156 S2000   1:59.642   10   1.247    174.31  
 6   11   Andy PRIAULX   GBR   BMW 320i   1:59.699   13   1.304    174.22  
 7   10   Frank DIEFENBACHER   GER   SEAT Toledo Cupra   2:00.044   12   1.649    173.72  
 8   4   Alessandro ZANARDI   ITA   BMW 320i   2:00.273   13   1.878    173.39  
 9   20   Tom CORONEL   NED   BMW 320i   2:00.408   12   2.013    173.20  
 10   5   Antonio GARCIA   ESP   BMW 320i   2:00.482   13   2.087    173.09  
 11   44   Salvatore TAVANO   ITA   Alfa Romeo 156 Gta   2:00.563   11   2.168    172.97  
 12   8   Rickard RYDELL   SWE   SEAT Toledo Cupra   2:00.789   10   2.394    172.65  
 13   9   Jordi GENE   ESP   SEAT Toledo Cupra   2:01.285   9   2.890    171.94  
 14   46   Luca RANGONI   ITA   Alfa Romeo 156 Gta   2:01.418   8   3.023    171.76  
 15   7   Gianni MORBIDELLI   ITA   SEAT Toledo Cupra   2:01.583   11   3.188    171.52  
 16   45   Michele BARTYAN   AUT   Alfa Romeo 156 Gta   2:01.827   6   3.432    171.18  
 17   25   Stefano D'ASTE   ITA   BMW 320i   2:02.024   13   3.629    170.90  
 18   16   Simon HARRISON   GBR   Honda Civic Type-R   2:02.161   11   3.766    170.71  
 19   14   Alessandro BALZAN   ITA   Honda Civic Type-R   2:02.173   12   3.778    170.69  
 20   21   Paulien ZWART   NED   BMW 320i   2:03.339   9   4.944    169.08  
 21   27   Carl ROSENBLAD   SWE   BMW 320i   2:03.487   13   5.092    168.88  
 22   18   Sebastian GRUNERT   GER   Ford Focus ST170   2:04.881   9   6.486    166.99  
 23   19   Roland ASCH   GER   Ford Focus ST170   2:05.330   10   6.935    166.39