Roberto Colciago crowned his perfect day in Pergusa, claiming his first pole position in the FIA European Touring Car Championship. After topping the time sheets in both the free practice sessions, the Autodelta driver set a provisional pole position eight minutes into the session, lapping in 1:46.961. Four minutes later he was ousted by his team-mate Gabriele Tarquini, who was clocked at 1:46.839; but immediately afterwards Colciago drastically improved again, with a lap of 1:46.362, claiming the pole position for good. His time also represented a massive improvement of 1.2 seconds compared to last year’s pole position. 

With Colciago in such a good shape, none of the other drivers were able to challenge him for the pole; twice Tarquini was twice ranked provisionally first: once at the very beginning of the session (1:47.060) and later when he managed to briefly oust Colciago from the top (1:46.839); but finally he had to settle for second position, 0.6 seconds behind. After the end of the session, Tarquini had to report to the Stewards, who disallowed his fourth best time because he cut the Schumacher chicane. But this did not change his qualifying position. Dirk Müller confirmed himself as the best BMW driver today, setting the session’s third-fastest lap at 1:46.915. This also was a massive improvement from last year, as the fastest BMW time in 2002 was Dirk’s 1:48.904. 

As in the free practices, fourth position went to Fabio Francia. With a time of 1:47.013 set with two minutes remaining in the session, the young Italian improved again and claimed his best qualifying position so far in his maiden ETCC season; he was also the fastest of the Independent drivers. 

Nicola Larini and Franck Diefenbacher had clocked times which were apparently good for the fifth and seventh positions on the starting grid; but they both had their fastest laps disallowed by the Stewards for cutting the Schumacher chicane. Larini was demoted from fifth to seventh, while Diefenbacher lost seven positions. Fabrizio Giovanardi and Andy Priaulx took benefit from these penalties and climbed to the fifth and sixth positions respectively. With his BMW 320i penalised by the 40 kg ballast after his double win in Magny-Cours, current championship leader Jörg Müller was not able to improve on a disappointing ninth fastest time, just ahead of Jordi Gené, the best of the SEAT drivers after the penalty inflicted to Diefenbacher.

“It was quite a good day for me today. Since the first session this morning, the car was very good and quick. I wouldn’t say it was easy for me, because it’s never easy, but for sure there was less work to get to the top. Compared to last year, the ETCC cars have developed a lot. Alfa Romeo did a lot of testing and worked a lot on the suspension. Today we had the first real clue of how much these cars have been improved, because ETCC did not race in Barcelona last year and the Magny-Cours track has been modified. But besides the massive improvement in lap time, I should say that the 2003 Alfa Romeo 156GTA is now much easier to drive than it was last year. This is a good track for Alfa and I really hope the whole team, and myself in particular, may benefit from this tomorrow. I know that if I don’t make mistakes at the start, I will have a good chance of winning.” 

Gabriele Tarquini

“I’m quite happy to be second on the grid, although I have to say I was very surprised by Colciago’s time. Roberto did an excellent job; he definitely deserved the pole position today. I made three good qualifying attempts without managing to get a good aspiration, which is very important here. That is the reason I wasn’t faster. In the end, I can’t complain. A front row position is always good and tomorrow it will be another day. I haven’t been here since 1993, when the Schumacher chicane was not there. I had seen it at the TV, but from the cockpit it looks completely different. I don’t like it; it’s too narrow and it’s too easy to make a mistake there, damaging your car. And we have also lost the feeling of negotiating the Curvone flat out, which was quite a feeling.” 

Fabio Francia

“It was a great day for me. Everything turned out the right way. I might have done even better, if not for a couple of slight mistakes I did on my best lap. But I’m too happy to have any regrets. A fourth place is a great result for me and the team. I am not only pleased with the position itself, but with the fact that I qualified less than two tenths behind Tarquini who is second. I think the fact that my car is 30 kg lighter than the Autodelta’s, because it has the H-pattern gearbox, might have helped me, but I’d like to have 30 kg more and the 6-speed sequential gearbox. Now I have to think of a strategy for the races. The first thing to do is to have a good start; I hope not to lose any places after the first corner. Then we’ll see; my priority is to win the Independents race, but I would also like to be classified as high as possible in the overall classification.”