Alain Menu on his way to claiming pole YOKOHAMA ADVAN GIVES CHEVROLET POLE POSITION


Media information, 2 June 2007


Chevrolet driver Alain Menu claimed pole position on the tough streets of Pau for round seven of the FIA World Touring Car Championship and his Yokohama ADVAN tyres were there for him every step of the way.

Once again, the times posted were extremely close, a testament to the tyres' performance, with the top 11 drivers all qualifying within one second of each other. The Swiss fought for the top spot with SEAT's Yvan Muller throughout the sunny 45-minute session with times tumbling down as ADVANs responded to the increasing track temperature.

"I really don't think that having front or rear-wheeled cars makes a difference here," said Menu. "Yokohama knows what it is doing and is used to finding a middle ground between the two type of cars.
The real challenge is the difference in track surface throughout the circuit.
As this is a street circuit, the surface varies on certain areas and that can affect the grip. As I said though, the Yokohama team knows what they are doing and I haven't had any problems on that front!"

Second place French driver Yvan Muller added: "I always enjoy driving at Pau but I knew that today's qualifying would be hard.
Alain and I kept swapping fastest times and in the end he piped me to pole.
A street circuit such as Pau is very different to race circuits therefore it is imperative to have good tyres that last."

Yokohama Europe Marketing Manager Kazuyoshi Sekiguchi was on hand to sum-up what proved to be a very dramatic qualifying session, ended by a spectacular but harmless crash courtesy of BMW driver Augusto Farfus.

"There is something quite special watching the world's best touring car drivers pushing for pole, knowing that a key element to their success is our product, the Yokohama ADVAN," said Sekiguchi.
"For all our competitors whatever the discipline it is imperative that we deliver a consistent and quality product!"