Nurburgring WTCR: Bjork scores back-to-back poles

Bjork had been headed by the similar Hyundai of BRC Racing driver Norbert Michelisz after the second set of runs in the session, but produced a monster final lap - including a fourth sector time that was more than a second faster than anybody else could manage - to seal pole.

His lap of 8m55.085s was 1.040 seconds faster than second place qualifier Frederic Vervisch could manage in his Comtoyou Racing Audi RS3 LMS, and smashed the pole time Bjork recorded in Thursday's qualifying session by more than three seconds.

Michelisz, who himself had sat a second clear of the chasing pack after his second qualifying run, had to settle for third ahead of Bjork's YMR teammate and race one winner Yvan Muller.

The Frenchman qualified one hundredth faster than his nephew Yann Ehrlacher, who will start the weekend's final race on Saturday afternoon from fifth in his Munnich Motorsport Honda.

Ehrlacher will head an all-Honda third row on the grid for that race, after Benjamin Lessennes jumped up to sixth late on for Boutsen Ginion.

After scoring a podium in Thursday's first race, Rob Huff was again the fastest Volkswagen in Friday's qualifying session as he dragged his Sebastien Loeb Racing to seventh, ahead of the second Munnich Honda of Esteban Guerrieri.

Wildcard entrant Rene Rast was ninth and the leading WRT Audi, while Pepe Oriola will start the reversed-grid race from pole after improving to 10th on his final run.

Championship leader Gabriele Tarquini - who retired from the opening race - was briefly 10th after his final flying lap but was bumped down to 14th by the end of the session.

Gordon Shedden had held 10th and provisional reversed-grid pole position for much of the session, but failed to improve on his final run and will instead start both of Saturday's races from 15th in his WRT Audi.

Results:

Cla	Num	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	11	Thed Björk	Hyundai	8'55.085
2	22	Frederic Vervisch	Audi	8'56.125	1.040
3	5	Norbert Michelisz	Hyundai	8'56.534	1.449
4	48	Yvan Muller	Hyundai	8'56.739	1.654
5	68	Yann Ehrlacher	Honda	8'56.749	1.664
6	63	Benjamin Lessennes	Honda	8'57.310	2.225
7	12	Rob Huff	Volkswagen	8'58.646	3.561
8	86	Esteban Guerrieri	Honda	8'58.708	3.623
9	33	René Rast	Audi	8'59.183	4.098
10	74	Pepe Oriola	Seat	8'59.630	4.545
11	69	Jean Karl Vernay	Audi	8'59.952	4.867
12	23	Nathanaël Berthon	Audi	8'59.952	4.867
13	9	Tom Coronel	Honda	9'01.161	6.076
14	30	Gabriele Tarquini	Hyundai	9'01.511	6.426
15	52	Gordon Shedden	Audi	9'01.702	6.617
16	25	Mehdi Bennani	Volkswagen	9'01.706	6.621
17	27	John Filippi	Seat	9'01.834	6.749
18	21	Aurelien Panis	Audi	9'02.224	7.139
19	70	Mato Homola	Peugeot	9'02.836	7.751
20	15	James Thompson	Honda	9'02.917	7.832
21	20	Denis Dupont	Audi	9'03.360	8.275
22	7	Aurélien Comte	Peugeot	9'04.114	9.029
23	10	Gianni Morbidelli	Alfa Romeo	9'04.894	9.809
24	88	Fabrizio Giovanardi	Alfa Romeo	9'05.098	10.013
25	8	Norbert Nagy	Seat	9'06.016	10.931
26	66	Zsolt David Szabo	Seat	9'06.116	11.031
27	94	Kris Richard	Honda	9'07.147	12.062