Despite this comfortable lead, Larini made another attempt ten minutes into the session and managed to improve by another six tenths of a second, claiming the pole position for good. The first of the season for him. With Larini virtually untouchable, the other drivers fough for the second spot of the grid. Just after Larini’s record lap, his team-mate Tarquini set a provisional second-fastest time of 2:09.336, but a few seconds Colciago and Dirk Müller pushed the championship leader down to fourth place, setting times of 2:08.993 and 2:09.018 respectively. Nothing changed for the top positions, until the final eight minutes of the session. 

Then Dirk Müller was able to cut another three tenths of a second, lapping in 2:08.747, which was enough to steal the second position from Colciago. The Italian driver was not in a position to strike back, as he had damaged the front of his Alfa 156 going off the track and into the gravel. In the final part of the session Priaulx and Jörg Müller of BMW Team Deutschland, claimed the fourth and fifth positions respectively in detrimento to Tarquini, who slipped to sixth. Giovanardi, who was fighting against set-up problems during both practice sessions, qualified in seventh, just ahead of Francia the fastest Independent driver. 

Balzan and Couto made strong performances, completing the top-ten ranking. SEAT and Volvo were both disappointed by their results. On his first experience with his SEAT Toledo Cupra in the wet, Diefenbacher could not do achieve any better than a 15th starting position, while his team-mate Gené missed the session due to an engine problem arisen in the morning practice. At ART Engineering, a wrong set-up choice prevented the Volvo S60 cars of Rickard Rydell and Sandro Sardelli to set faster times; they were classified 17th and 18th, with the Italian driver performing a spectacular 360-degree spin at the Estoril corner. 

“The qualifying was a nightmare as it came in the worst moment of the day as far as the weather was concerned. We started practicing in the wet, this morning, but that was nothing compared to the conditions we found in qualifying. We did a good job in the morning sessions and my times were very close to Tarquini’s and Colciago’s. I decided to push more at the beginning of the qualifying session and I was able to create a big gap. I was really surprised by this and I don’t have an explanation on how it happened. The track conditions improved in the second part of the session, but nobody managed to get close to my time. In any case, I decided to stay on the track and to find the best lines, but I had mist on my windshield, which prevented me from improving again. I’m quite happy with this pole position, I hope this is just the perfect start of a perfect weekend.” 

Roberto Colciago

“I have to say that, even if there was a lot of water on the track, I felt at ease, because my car was very good. I was the fastest in the second free practice and I knew I could fight for the pole position. Nicola set a fantastic lap time, but I am still convinced that I was in a position to get close to him, or even to beat him. Unfortunately I damaged my car when I went off into the gravel trap. The oil radiator and even the gearbox were damaged. This was the end of my pole position hopes and I even lost the second place to Dirk.” In the picture, Nicola Larini with race engineer Marco Calovolo.