The N.Technology Alfa Romeo team will have to fight hard in this afternoon’s opening round of the FIA World Touring Car Championship after clutch problems on his Alfa 156 hampered the efforts of James Thompson during yesterday’s qualifying in Brazil.

The technical setback will see lead driver, Thompson, starting from the eighth row for the first race in Curitiba, a bitter blow for the team after some great performances during testing and practice. “Unfortunately, I was only able to do one qualifying run,” said Thompson, who finished fifth fastest in Friday’s testing session and seventh in practice this morning. “The clutch problem put me out for the rest of the session. I’m disappointed that we didn’t get a chance to show our abilities. We could have qualified in the top eight, maybe even better.”

Thompson, from Harrogate, is still upbeat about N.Technology’s chances in tomorrow’s double-header. “The first corner is very tight, so there might be some craziness there that will benefit us,” said the 32-year-old, a former British Touring Car Champion. “We’re very quick in a straight line, which is an advantage here and overtaking cars on the straight won’t be a problem.”

Team-mate Olivier Tielemans qualified 18th, improving throughout the weekend as he got to grips with both the track and his Alfa Romeo 156. At one point the Dutch rookie managed a well-executed overtaking manoeuvre on Irish competitor Emmet O’Brien during qualifying; something that did not go unnoticed by Team Manager Andrea Muller. “Olivier hasn’t had a chance to do that many laps yet,” said Muller. “He’s still learning but he is getting better and better as he gets to spend more time in the car. He is young but very determined which is great to see.”

Muller was philosophical about the day’s problems. “It’s a real shame because the car is quick,” he said. “We could have been seventh, maybe even sixth but we weren’t lucky. If we’d had a second run, for sure we would have improved. Today we couldn’t do better but tomorrow is a different story.”
 

At the front the final qualifying session yesterday became the battle of the BMW men for top spot. Jörg Müller occupied provisional pole for the majority of the session before Andy Priaulx stole it on his last lap. Seconds later Augusto Farfus stormed to the top but his joy was to be short lived as Müller reclaimed pole in the dying seconds with a lap of 1:24.769. This demoted Farfus by just 0.055 seconds.

The BMW domination extended beyond the top three as Félix Porteiro secured fourth place on the last lap of his first WTCC qualifying session. Fifth and sixth places were occupied by SEAT Sport drivers. Gabriele Tarquini posted a 1:25.173 while Yvan Muller's best lap was 0.155 behind that; however the Frenchman's qualifying time is currently under investigations because he cut over the grass at turn 2. In the position below was Robert Huff from Chevrolet; his last and best lap was 1:25.479. Tom Coronel and Jordi Gené qualified eighth and ninth while Alessandro Zanardi completed the top ten.