Yvan Muller mastered a wet track to set the pole position time in qualifying for the first of tomorrow's three Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship races at Mondello Park, Ireland. His Northern Irish team-mate Colin Turkington was second fastest to make it a Vauxhall 1-2 on the front row of the starting grid.

Muller, the 2003 BTCC champion and four times a winner at Mondello in the past, achieved pole position - his first of the season - with a best lap of one minute, 56.537 seconds. Turkington was the only other driver to break the 1m57s barrier, on 1m56.969s. Frenchman Muller currently lies third in the championship standings and, with points leaders Matt Neal and Dan Eaves qualifying back in fifth and tenth positions in their Team Halfords Honda Integras, he senses a chance to close in on them in the title race.

Muller said: "I think my biggest rival this weekend will be Colin, so if we are ahead of the Hondas on pace it's important we take our chances and close the gap to them tomorrow. We are all carrying success ballast in our cars but I think the rain in qualifying helped - the extra weight doesn't have such an effect in wet conditions. We are in good shape and I'm not bothered if it's wet or dry tomorrow."

The qualifying session was delayed by three red-flag stoppages caused by drivers hitting problems in the treacherous conditions and meant others were unable to set what they believed would have been their fastest times.

Lining up behind Muller and Turkington tomorrow on the second row of the grid will be SEAT Sport UK team-mates Luke Hines and Jason Plato, the 2001 BTCC champion. Plato, fourth in the current standings, congratulated arch rival Muller on his pole position.

Plato said: "Yvan's lap was something special - I think I could have got second, but I'd have been struggling to match the time he set. It was a very good performance. The first red flag came out just as I was crossing the finish line - if I'd have been a second earlier my time would have counted and my dashboard said 1m56.8s which would have been second."

Neal, whose Honda goes into tomorrow's first race carrying most success ballast, contemplated his chances. He said: "Fifth and I don't know if I'm disappointed or pleased. I knew it was going to be a tough one here but fifth ... and I'm one second away from Yvan. He's going to be really hard to beat. He always goes well here, the sod."

SEAT's James Pickford completed the top six. Next up were Tom Chilton in Arena Motorsports' Honda Civic and Vauxhall's Gavin Smith, with his Rathfarnham roots very much the local hero at Mondello. Pickford and Smith will be key players tomorrow as SEAT and Vauxhall continue their battle for the BTCC's coveted Manufacturers' crown. The Spanish manufacturer currently trails the Luton marque by 40 points, with a maximum of 111 to play for at Mondello.

Mondello's BTCC meeting is scheduled to receive two hours of live coverage tomorrow at 15.00 on Britain's biggest commercial terrestrial television channel ITV.