Slovakia WTCC: Tarquini leads Honda 1-2-3 in qualifying
Gabriele Tarquini captured his and Honda's second straight World Touring Car pole at the Slovakia Ring
The Japanese marque dominated the session, locking out the top three courtesy of Tiago Monteiro and Norbert Michelisz in the Zengo-run Civic.
Three-time WTCC champion Yvan Muller was the only man who looked capable of denying the Hondas, but fell just short in Q2.
His best lap, a 2m10.941s, was six hundredths of a second slower than Monteiro but left him fourth on the grid for the opening race.
His RML team-mate Tom Chilton was a further two tenths down the road in fifth, while the Bamboo Chevrolets of Alex MacDowall and James Nash were split by defending champion Rob Huff's SEAT in the fight for sixth.
Marrakech winner Pepe Oriola was ninth, with Tom Coronel taking the reversed-grid race two pole after qualifying 10th.
There was no such fortune for his ROAL BMW team-mate Darryl O'Young, who crashed heavily at Turn 9 just five minutes into Q1.
The Hong Kong racer ran wide on the exit of the corner and hit the barrier at around 160km/h, causing severe damage to the right-hand side of his car.
O'Young was able to climb out the car and was cleared after a visit to the medical centre, but his place in Sunday's races remains in doubt given the damage to his 320.
The session was halted for 30 minutes to clear the debris and repair the barrier.
Tom Boardman also suffered early Q1 woes. The Briton pulled off without even completing one sector after suffering a misfire from his new engine, which had only been installed ahead of qualifying following similar problems in FP2.
Pos Driver Car Time Gap 1. Gabriele Tarquini Honda 2m10.773s 2. Tiago Monteiro Honda 2m10.877s + 0.104s 3. Norbert Michelisz Zengo Honda 2m10.889s + 0.116s 4. Yvan Muller RML Chevrolet 2m10.941s + 0.168s 5. Tom Chilton RML Chevrolet 2m11.162s + 0.389s 6. Alex MacDowall Bamboo Chevrolet 2m11.422s + 0.649s 7. Robert Huff Munnich SEAT 2m11.624s + 0.851s 8. James Nash Bamboo Chevrolet 2m11.714s + 0.941s 9. Pepe Oriola Tuenti SEAT 2m11.882s + 1.109s 10. Tom Coronel ROAL BMW 2m12.048s + 1.275s 11. Mehdi Bennani Proteam BMW 2m12.857s + 2.084s 12. Michel Nykjaer Nika Chevrolet 2m17.614s + 6.841s 13. Marc Basseng Munnich SEAT 2m12.603s (Q1) 14. Fredy Barth Wiechers BMW 2m12.610s (Q1) 15. James Thompson Lada 2m12.641s (Q1) 16. Stefano D'Aste PB BMW 2m12.665s (Q1) 17. Charles Ng Engstler BMW 2m12.891s (Q1) 18. Fernando Monje Campos SEAT 2m12.921s (Q1) 19. Rene Munnich Munnich SEAT 2m13.223s (Q1) 20. Franz Engstler Engstler BMW 2m13.582s (Q1) 21. M.Kozlovskiy Lada 2m14.900s (Q1) 22. Darryl O'Young ROAL BMW 13m16.907 (Q1)
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