The red flags came out early on when Proteam Racing's Fabio Fabiani crashed into the barriers at the first corner, the session was stopped for 20 minutes while repairs were made.

Fabiani's teammate Mehdi Bennani had earlier beached his BMW 320 TC in the gravel at turn fourteen on his first flying lap, he tried to return to the track later on but was not allowed by the race officials as he had received outside assistance.

Tarquini topped the first part of qualifying with Menu second, Engstler was tenth in and would take the reversed grid pole position for race two for the second round in a row.

Local driver Pepe Oriola looked set to make it through into the second session but dropped to eleventh at the last minute thanks to a quick lap from Michel Nykjær.

Dahlgren was 17th having had little track time due to various problems, The final part of qualifying was led by Muller throughout, Tarquini had initially been second until a late lap from Huff locked out the front row for Chevrolet.

Aleksei Dudukalo was having set up issues on his Lukoil-SUNRED SEAT, locking up frequently before depositing his car in the gravel at the first corner on his third lap.

Villa ended up in the gravel, Coronel dropped down the order and Michelisz was unaffected by Muller passed the Zengő driver to take the lead.