QUOTES

Alain Menu (pole position): "My first run would have been good enough for pole position already but I lost a lot of time behind Luis Pedro Magalhaes. On my second run the track was seemed to be very slippery, and I lost the back in the chicane and in Turn 1. Then I brushed the wall in Turn 3 but fortunately the damage was minimal. I was fortunate that the red flag came out on my in-lap, so the guys had plenty of time to sort the car out again, which they obviously did to perfection. My second flying lap of my third run was just a super lap, which I was really very happy with."

Rob Huff (2nd): "I struggled all session long each time we put four new tyres on the car, which for some reason didn't give the same kind of balance used ones did. So for my last run I only put new tyres on at the front and kept the used ones at the rear. On my final lap I tried to further improve my laptime but I lost the back end going into Turn 1. There's no real damage to the car other than some cosmetics. Today has been the day we have all been working for so long. We made half the cake today, so hopefully we can put the icing on tomorrow."

Nicola Larini (3rd): "Today we can say we are really, really competitive! The car was perfect, and with 50 kilograms on board on this kind of track, the driver hopefully also made a difference. I hope that tomorrow I can score enough points to keep my fourth position in the championship."

Ray Mallock: "This is a fantastic achievement for the whole team, our first-ever 1-2-3 in qualifying. The Chevrolet Lacetti clearly works fantastically on street circuits, but being in the garages nearest the pit exit has also helped us a lot. With all the red flags that are so familiar on street circuits, we were back on the track first each time the track went green again, and this allowed us to have clear runs on all of the cars. We now clearly demonstrated the advantage the BMW's have been having all season long. All that's left to do now is to try and convert the qualifying positions in race results."

Eric Nève: "One couldn't possibly hope for a better result. To qualify in first, second and third on a brand new track clearly shows the excellent qualities of team, car and drivers. Tomorrow we'll have some one hundred Portuguese Chevrolet dealers visiting us, and I can't think of a better place to invite them than to the ever-friendly WTCC atmosphere in a seaport city on a warm summer's day."