01.05.2004 BMW dominate qualifying at Magny Cours as Augusto Farfus is the fastest of the Alfa Romeo runners in sixth place: qualifying report & grid from Magny-Cours
Gabriele Tarquini at Magny Cours

BMW Team Deutschland’s team-mates Jörg and Dirk Müller will share the front row on the starting grid for tomorrow’s ETCC round 5.

The two German drivers set the fastest times in a very tough qualifying session which saw the first twelve cars covered by only one second, and an improvement of nearly two seconds compared to the lap times set in 2003.

Frank Diefenbacher qualified third in his SEAT Toledo Cupra, giving the Spanish Manufacturer its best qualifying result ever, while the Alfa Romeo AutoDelta men, who had dominated two weeks ago in Valencia, struggled to keep the pace.

A record field of 25 cars took part in the session, and four minutes into it Rickard Rydell started the hostilities with a lap in 1:50.111.

SEAT’s Swede was immediately ousted by his team-mate Diefenbacher’s 1:49.667, which gave the German youngster a provisional pole. However, soon the BMW drivers made clear they were aiming to steal the pole from SEAT. One after the other, Jörg Müller (1:49.768), Andy Priaulx (1:49.738), Antonio García (1:49.854) and Dirk Müller (1:49.749) managed to close the gap from Diefenbacher.

Then, with only five minutes left, Jörg performed his top note with a lap in 1:49.357, claiming the pole position for good. Priaulx responded with a 1:49.562 which gave him the second position only for a few seconds, because immediately Diefenbacher clocked a 1:49.509, demoting the Briton to third; in his turn the German driver was ousted from the second place by Dirk’s 1:49.468 just as the session expired.

Augusto Farfus was the fastest of the Alfa Romeo works drivers, and qualified sixth with a lap in 1:49.812, just head of his team-mates Tarquini and Giovanardi.

Oregon Team’s Michele Bartyan emerged as the best in the Independents Trophy, also managing to break into the top-ten of the overall classification. This was the first pole in the Trophy for the Austrian driver.

2004 FIA European Touring Car Championship Rd 5 & 6 Magny-Cours: Qualifying
POS NO CL DRIVER NAT CAR TIME LAPS GAP KM/H
1   42      Jorg MULLER   GER   BMW 320i   1:49.357   10       145.20  
 2   43      Dirk MULLER   GER   BMW 320i   1:49.468   10   0.111    145.06  
 3   10      Frank DIEFENBACHER   GER   SEAT Toledo Cupra   1:49.509   10   0.152    145.00  
 4   11      Andy PRIAULX   GBR   BMW 320i   1:49.562   10   0.205    144.93  
 5   5      Antonio GARCIA   ESP   BMW 320i   1:49.606   11   0.249    144.87  
 6   3      Augusto FARFUS JR.   BRA   Alfa Romeo 156 S2000   1:49.812   10   0.455    144.60  
 7   1      Gabriele TARQUINI   ITA   Alfa Romeo 156 S2000   1:49.979   10   0.622    144.38  
 8   2      Fabrizio GIOVANARDI   ITA   Alfa Romeo 156 S2000   1:49.982   12   0.625    144.38  
 9   8      Rickard RYDELL   SWE   SEAT Toledo Cupra   1:50.111   8   0.754    144.21  
 10   45   I   Michele BARTYAN   AUT   Alfa Romeo 156 GTA  1:50.220   12   0.863    144.07  
 11   20   I   Tom CORONEL   NED   BMW 320i   1:50.299   11   0.942    143.96  
 12   46   I   Luca RANGONI   ITA   Alfa Romeo 156 GTA  1:50.434   12   1.077    143.79  
 13   12      Kurt MOLLEKENS   BEL   BMW 320i   1:50.651   12   1.294    143.51  
 14   4      Alessandro ZANARDI   ITA   BMW 320i   1:50.822   11   1.465    143.28  
 15   9      Jordi GENE   ESP   SEAT Toledo Cupra   1:51.057   10   1.700    142.98  
 16   23      Jan MAGNUSSEN   DEN   Peugeot 307 Gti   1:51.355   8   1.998    142.60  
 17   14   I   Alessandro BALZAN   ITA   Honda Accord 2.0i   1:51.484   10   2.127    142.43  
 18   44   I   Salvatore TAVANO   ITA   Alfa Romeo 156 GTA  1:51.745   8   2.388    142.10  
 19   25   I   Stefano D'ASTE   ITA   BMW 320i   1:51.813   8   2.456    142.01  
 20   27   I   Carl ROSENBLAD   SWE   BMW 320i   1:52.158   11   2.801    141.58  
 21   16   I   Simon HARRISON   GBR   Honda Civic Type-R   1:52.662   13   3.305    140.94  
 22   18   I   Sebastian GRUNERT   GER   Ford Focus ST170   1:53.148   9   3.791    140.34  
 23   19   I   Roland ASCH   GER   Ford Focus ST170   1:53.294   4   3.937    140.16  
 24   17   I   Toni RUOKONEN   FIN   Honda Civic Type-R   1:54.004   13   4.647    139.29  
 25   22   I   Klaas ZWART   NED   BMW 320i   1:55.080   13   5.723    137.98