» WTCC: López inches closer to title with pole

José María López has inched closer to claiming a hat-trick of World Touring Car Championship titles after securing pole position at the Twin Ring Motegi in Japan.

The Argentine claimed his sixth pole position of the 2016 season, leading a dominant Citroën 1-2-3 in the final reckoning. His closest championship rival, Honda’s Tiago Monteiro, qualified fourth-fastest.

After being quickest in both preliminary stages of qualifying, López was last out on track in the five-car one-lap shootout for pole position and ran purple sectors throughout his flying lap to secure the twentieth pole position of his WTCC career.

The result gave him another five points to his championship tally. He simply needs to outscore Monteiro by 10 points and his teammate Yvan Muller by 15 points over the remainder of the weekend to ensure himself a third World Championship title before he bows out of the series to join the FIA Formula E Championship.

Muller finished at López’s closest challenger in qualifying, but such was the reigning champion’s dominance in qualifying that the French veteran was still over eight-tenths of a second off the pace. The privateer Citroën of Sébastien Loeb Racing driver Mehdi Bennani was third-fastest, two spots ahead of teammate Tom Chilton.

Monteiro was the sole Honda to make it through to Q3 at the carmaker’s home event. His teammates Rob Huff and Norbert Michelisz opted to abandon a shot at Q3 and abandoned their second runs in Q2 after securing ninth and tenth places, which guaranteed they would start from the front row of Sunday’s opening reversed-grid race.

Series returnee Néstor Girolami had looked promising in his first outing for Polestar Cyan Racing after clocking the fastest times in both of the preceding free practice sessions. The Argentine’s pace came by dint of a fresh allocation of tyres, but he was unable to repeat his form in qualifying and had to settle for the sixth-fastest time.

In what was a solid session for the Swedish outfit after a run of uncompetitive showings of late, Thed Björk also made the top-ten and qualified eighth-fastest, which translates to third on the grid for Sunday’s opening race.

Nicky Catsburg was the sole LADA driver to qualify inside the top ten in what was another disappointing showing for the Russian factory team. This time is was a bungled strategy call that damaged their prospects, with the team electing to keep both Gabriele Tarquini and Hugo Valente in the pits in order to save tyres. Late improvements by privateer runners James Thompson and Grégoire Demoustier proved enough to knock both Tarquini and Valente out at the first hurdle.

Honda newcomer Ryo Michigami qualified fifteenth-fastest in his one-off hit-out on home soil, while Argentina podium-winner Tom Coronel will start from the back of the grid for both races after being unable to set a representative time in qualifying after his ROAL Motorsport team elected to fit a new engine to his Chevrolet RML Cruze.

2016 FIA World Touring Car Championship Race of Japan – Qualifying Results
	Q3 Qualifiers	Team	Time	Class
1.	José María López	Citroën Racing WTCC C-Elysée	1:55.602
2.	Yvan Muller	Citroën Racing WTCC C-Elysée	1:56.409
3.	Mehdi Bennani	Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée	1:56.535	IND
4.	Tiago Monteiro	Honda Racing Team JAS Civic WTCC	1:56.602
5.	Tom Chilton	Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée	1:56.877	IND
	Q2 Qualifiers	Team	Time	Class
6.	Néstor Girolami	Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo S60 TC1	1:56.916
7.	Nick Catsburg	LADA Sport Rosneft Vesta WTCC	1:57.088
8.	Thed Björk	Polestar Cyan Racing Volvo S60 TC1	1:57.142
9.	Rob Huff	Honda Racing Team JAS Civic WTCC	1:57.251
10.	Norbert Michelisz	Honda Racing Team JAS Civic WTCC	1:57.465
11.	James Thompson	Münnich Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	1:57.930	IND
12.	Grégoire Demoustier	Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée	1:58.028	IND
	Q1 Qualifiers	Team	Time	Class
13.	Hugo Valente	LADA Sport Rosneft Vesta WTCC	1:57.825
14.	Gabriele Tarquini	LADA Sport Rosneft Vesta WTCC	1:57.908
15.	Ryo Michigami	Honda Racing Team JAS Civic WTCC	1:57.971
16.	John Filippi	Campos Racing Chevrolet RML Cruze	1:58.119	IND
17.	Ferenc Ficza	Zengõ Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC	1:58.885	IND
18.	Dániel Nagy	Zengõ Motorsport Honda Civic WTCC	1:59.000	IND
19.	Tom Coronel	ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet RML Cruze	2:01.233	IND