Championship leader Gabriele Tarquini claimed his fourth pole of the season in the World Touring Car Championship at Imola.

Tarquini headed a one-two-three for SEAT ahead of Yvan Muller and Rickard Rydell while Augusto Farfus, second in the drivers' championship, was sixth.

The first qualifying session started with the five SEAT Sport cars in a line to benefit from slipstreaming.

There was a temporary halt after Andrea Larini went off at the Acque Minerali and caused a red flag. On the restart all three Chevrolets entered the top 10 along with Andy Priaulx and Farfus.

However, in order to ensure a strong presence in Q2, SEAT Sport made a final push at the end and with all five drivers setting their best times they laid claim to the top five positions.

Sergio Hernandez posted his best lap in the final seconds but it was five hundredths too slow to put him through.

Jorg Muller and Alessandro Zanardi were other notable names that missed out.

In the second qualifying session, all five SEAT drivers set good times and Priaulx and Farfus claimed fifth and sixth, before the former was demoted to seventh on subsequent laps.