Brazilian fans will be treated to the sight of home-grown Augusto Farfus starting from pole position tomorrow after he topped today’s qualifying. His time of 1:24.761 was 0.142 of a second faster than the best attempt of Jordi Gené who will begin from second position.

Peter Terting, who had provisional pole for the majority of session, will begin Race 1 from third position tomorrow, followed by a trio of his team-mates; Tarquini, Rydell and Thompson.

The session had not even reached five minutes when red flags were issued after BMW Team Italy-Spain's driver, Alessandro Zanardi spun at Esse de Alta and became stranded in the gravel trap.

The Italian was not permitted to rejoin the session having received external aid by the marshals.

Current championship leader Andy Priaulx qualified 7th overall with a lap time of 1:25.272 which was the best from a BMW.

Yvan Muller, who currently shares the championship lead with Priaulx, will line up 17th.

From the Chevrolet team, it was Nicola Larini who completed the quickest lap which provisionally placed him 16th.




However, the Italian will actually begin from 14th as both Tom Coronel (qualified 12th) and Luca Rangoni (qualified 15th) will be demoted 10 grid positions each due to engine changes.

With Coronel penalised, JAS Motorsport's Ryan Sharp will begin the race ahead of his Independent trophy rivals in 13th place.

The action was as close as ever with 18 drivers qualifying within one second.

New comers Fabrizio Giovanardi and Duncan Huisman qualified in 9th and 11th respectively, while Brazilian youngster Lucas Molo posted the 25th time.