Alain Menu led a historic Chevrolet 1-2-3 in an eventful – and twice interrupted - qualifying session for the sixth round of the World Touring Car Championship around the streets of Porto.
Adding to the pole position he managed at Zandvoort and on the streets of Pau too, Menu had utterly dominated in practice and carried that form into qualifying, stunning his rivals with a superb time a few minutes from the close. The Swiss driver then went quicker again to end an unprecedented seven tenths up on his nearest rival.
Those nearest rivals came from team-mates Rob Huff and Nicola Larini in second and third, to mark the first time all three Lacettis have filled the top three positions.
Indeed, with the tight, bump, but quick Portuguese circuit catching most drivers out in some way – some more so than others -, the nimble Chevrolet seemed to be the car to have around some of the trickiest bends in motorsport.
The number of casualties throughout the session, which was supposed to be 45 minutes long but ended up taking 1 hour and 20mins to resolve following two red flags, was considerable and made getting a clean lap particularly tricky.
Nonetheless, Chevrolet worked together to come out on top, Menu leading the way, before Larini followed him across the line to initially go second. Huff then popped up into second place to record his best ever starting position, although the Brit would then drop it into the first corner and rip the bumper off his car.
SEAT were not disgraced though, even if it was the GR Asia Leon of Tom Coronel who led their charge, the Dutchman proving impressive around the Porto streets this weekend as he searches for some much needed points.
He was in turn ahead of Gabriele Tarquini, who in fact led the timesheets for the majority of the session but had no answer to the strength of Chevrolet in the latter stages. He will be joined on the third row by team-mate Yvan Muller.
![Alain Menu - Chevrolet Lacetti [Pic credit: FIA WTCC]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/329727.jpg)
