» WTCC: López leads Citroën 1-2-3 in Slovakia

José María López has won his second pole position of the 2014 World Touring Car Championship season, leading yet another 1-2-3 for Citroën Racing in a dramatic qualifying session at the Slovakia Ring. Sébastien Loeb and Yvan Muller will start Race 1 from second and third places, respectively.

With the Citroëns having dominated practice so far, it was a great surprise to see Zengõ Motorsport driver Norbert Michelisz’s Honda fastest in the opening qualifying session. Reigning champion Muller was second-fastest, with Tom Coronel putting his ROAL Chevrolet in third.

The same fortune would not befall Michelisz’s fellow Honda privateer, Mehdi Bennani. The Moroccan’s appalling luck plagued him yet again, with his Proteam Honda suffering a turbo problem and unable to post a lap time.

His absence left the LADA team with its first real chance of getting into Q2, although it too was one car down after Mikhail Kozlovskiy was also unable to set a time when his Granta was hit with more mechanical maladies. Nonetheless, Rob Huff came through to pip René Münnich for the twelfth and final spot.

Morbidelli made the Q3 cut

The second phase of qualifying started in dramatic fashion when Gabriele Tarquini’s bonnet flew open, causing teammate Tiago Monteiro and Huff to take avoiding action. The works Honda driver was completely unsighted but managed to bring his car to a halt while the red flags were unfurled.

The time left meant that all of the Q2 runners only had the opportunity for one flying lap. López went quickest of all ahead of Michelisz and Loeb, while Tarquini took his repaired Civic eighth-fastest and Monteiro managed to tenth to give himself pole position for Race 2.

Also through to Q3 were Muller in the third Citroën, while Hungary race-winner Gianni Morbidelli also made the top-five.

The final phase’s one-lap shootouts saw Morbidelli post a competitive time, although he was ultimately slowest of the five as Muller, Loeb, Michelisz and then López – who became the first driver to break into the 2m03s barrier – bettered his effort.

Sunday’s first race takes place at 1:15pm local time (GMT +2), with Race 2 getting underway at 5:45pm.

2014 FIA WTCC Race of Slovakia – Final Qualifying:

	Q3 Qualifiers	Team	Time	Class
1.	José María López	Total Citroën Racing C-Elysée	2:03.912	TC1
2.	Sébastien Loeb	Total Citroën Racing C-Elysée	+ 0.372	TC1
3.	Yvan Muller	Total Citroën Racing C-Elysée	+ 0.629	TC1
4.	Norbert Michelisz	Zengõ Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC	+ 0.991	TC1
5.	Gianni Morbidelli	Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	+ 1.019	TC1
	Q2 Qualifiers	Team	Time	Class
6.	Tom Chilton	ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	2:04.870	TC1
7.	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	2:04.988	TC1
8.	Gabriele Tarquini	Castrol Honda Racing Team Civic WTCC	2:05.363	TC1
9.	Hugo Valente	Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze	2:05.429	TC1
10.	Tiago Monteiro	Castrol Honda Racing Team Civic WTCC	2:05.772	TC1
11.	Dušan Borković	Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze	2:06.835	TC1
12.	Rob Huff	LADA Sport Lukoil Granta Sport 1.6T	2:07.002	TC1
	Q1 Qualifiers	Team	Time	Class
13.	René Münnich	Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	2:06.625	TC1
14.	James Thompson	LADA Sport Lukoil Granta Sport 1.6T	2:07.718	TC1
15.	Franz Engstler	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW E90 320TC	2:12.390	TC2
16.	Pasquale di Sabatino	Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW E90 320TC	2:13.381	TC2
17.	Petr Fulín	Campos Racing SEAT León WTCC	2:13.508	TC2
18.	John Filippi	Campos Racing SEAT León WTCC	2:13.786	TC2
	Outside 107%	Team	Time	Class
DNQ.	Mikhail Kozlovskiy	LADA Sport Lukoil Granta Sport 1.6T	no time	TC1
DNQ.	Mehdi Bennani	Proteam Racing Honda Civic WTCC	no time	TC1