Britain’s Rob Huff (2:10.860) scored his first pole position since Macau last year making no mistakes on his final lap to finish 0.338s ahead of reigning champion Gabriele Tarquini (2:11.198) at Brno.
Colin Turkington will start as best of the independents in third overall for Race 1 in Brno, while Norbert Michelisz (2:11.436) topped the rookies in sixth overall.
Q1 – Rob Huff led the times as the WTCC cars were making steady progress during the first qualifying session until Fabio Fabiani continued his bad day ending beached in the gravel at T5 for the second time this weekend. The red flag came out as his car was moved out of danger while Gabriele Tarquini, Jordi Gené and Tom Coronel were yet to set a fast lap.
With 10-minutes remaining the session restarted and the field headed back on track. Huff remained at the top with Tarquini, Menu, Muller, Gené, Farfus, Turkington, Coronel, Michelisz and Nykjær going through into Q2.
Andy Priaulx (2:11.761) missed the cut by 0.011s from the Danish rookie with Tiago Monteiro (2:11.994) also struggling and qualifying in 14th.
Q2 – The drivers left it late in the 10-minute session but it only took one flying lap for Britain’s Rob Huff to secure his first pole position of the season ahead of reigning champion, Tarquini. Turkington was the fastest BMW driver for the second time this season finishing in third overall, just 0.007s adrift of the Italian.
With the whole field only recording one quick lap each it was Augusto Farfus (2:11.260) to claim fourth position with Alain Menu (2:11.360) in fifth.
Michelisz and Nykjær were left to fight it out in the Rookie Challenge during Q2 with Michelisz coming out to qualify sixth and Nykjær (2:11.826) tenth.
Tom Coronel (2:11.528) fast lap was good enough for seventh ahead of championship leader Yvan Muller (2:11.542) and Gené (2:11.745).