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Nicola Larini claimed his first touring car pole position for five seasons after dominating qualifying at Estoril.

The Italian Chevrolet driving last qualified quickest in 2003 when competing in the European Touring Car Championship.

Larini clocked 1:47.325 to take pole by over a tenth of a second, and even his second-best lap would have been good for pole.

SEAT Sport's Rickard Rydell claimed second position, but Alain Menu was stripped of his third position after the fire extinguisher on board his Chevrolet Lacetti car was found empty during the technical checks.

The stewards decided to cancel all times set by Menu during the qualifying session.

As a result of the Swiss's exclusion, SEAT driver Jordi Gene was promoted to third on the starting grid for tomorrow's Race 1, with Robert Huff, who was fastest in practice, alongside him.

BMW's Andy Priaulx and Augusto Farfus will fill the third row, while Menu will be allowed to start from the back of the grid.

The BMW drivers, who dominated Friday's wet test, struggled on the dry track with Andy Priaulx following his fellow countryman Huff into sixth position. Augusto Farfus came into seventh position while Championship leader Gabriele Tarquini rounded off the top eight struggling with the heaviest ballast of the field.

However, gaps between the drivers were very small, with the top fourteen covered by only one second.

Sergio Hernandez took pole position for the Independents' class ahead of Stefano D'Aste and Franz Engstler.

Newcomer Tom Boardman had a moment on his first laps out of the pits at the beginning of the session when he spun the car. However, the British driver was not the only one to make a mistake as later Alessandro Zanardi came off the track at the first corner.

James Thompson and his Honda Accord did not take part in the session further to the technical problems they had in the morning's practice.

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