Jörg Müller claimed his second pole position of the season, with an early fastest lap of 2:32.802.

The BMW Team Deutschland driver managed to set this time on his first quick lap, just five minutes into the session. And no one was able to beat it.

For most of the qualifying, his team-mate Dirk Müller kept second position, with a lap of 2:33.134.

However he was eventually ousted by SEAT Sport’s Jordi Gené, who drove his SEAT Toledo Cupra to complete a lap in 2:33.070.

Current Championship leader Andy Priaulx set the fourth-fastest time (2:33.430), beating Antonio García (2:33.444) and the first of the Alfa Romeo men, Gabriele Tarquini (2:33.477).

It was a great day for BMW drivers, who filled four of the first six spots for the grid for tomorrow’s Race 1. Rickard Rydell’s SEAT, James Thompson’s Alfa, Kurt Mollekens’ BMW and Fabrizio Giovanardi’s Alfa completed the top-ten, all covered by 0.9 seconds.

Alessandro Zanardi continued to impress, and set the 11th fastest time (2:33.904), only 1.1 seconds from the pole, and his best qualifying so far in the championship. Zanardi was ahead of Frank Diefenbacher, and the leading trio of the Independents Trophy: Salvatore Tavano, Carl Rosenblad and Alessandro Balzan. The three of them were covered by five hundredths.

Thomas Winkelhock, in his Schubert Motorsport BMW 320i, qualified 18th overall, and set pole position for the German DMSB Produktionswagen Meisterschaft with a lap of 2:35.808. Winkelhock’s team-mate Claudia Hürtgen and Hotfiel Sport’s Michael Funke were ranked second and third, respectively 0.3 and 0.9 seconds behind.

After 12 minutes Augusto Farfus’s Alfa Romeo 156 went off at the Savelot bend and hit the barrier; the session was red-flagged and restarted 25 minutes later. The Brazilian driver was unscathed, but his car was badly damaged.