After Yvan Muller and then Tom Coronel set the early benchmark times in the final qualifying session, Huff looked set to take pole as he lowered the best time to one minute 43.929 seconds.

But on his last lap, Menu got everything right as he posted a time of 1min 43.901secs to drop Huff into second place by just 0.028secs.

Coronel had a spin in his BMW late on which ended his hopes of improving on third place on the grid, while reigning two-time WTCC champion Muller had to settle for fourth in the third factory Chevrolet.

Gabriele Tarquini was fifth, while Tiago Monteiro took 10th place and with it pole position for race two tomorrow.