World Touring: Muller claims pole in Hungary

Reigning World Touring Car champion Yvan Muller achieved his second consecutive pole position for Citroen at the Hungaroring.

The Alsace driver set a stunning first sector time en route to a pole time of 1m48.727s. Championship leader and Q1 pacesetter Jose Maria Lopez finished just 0.034 second adrift in second, while former World Rally Championship king Sebastien Loeb completed a Citroen sweep of the top three.

After inheriting pole when his Citroen teammates encountered scrutineering difficulties at Paul Ricard two weeks ago, Muller took satisfaction in the manner of his latest success.

"I am pleased to open my real pole account for the season," said Muller.

The meeting is the first occasion where Citroen has carried 60kg of compensation weight. Muller stated that simulations had shown a 0.8sec per lap penalty because of the weight.

Honda produced a much improved showing in Hungary over its early season efforts. Gabriele Tarquini's final Q2 lap secured the Italian top billing on the timing screens, and factory JAS teammate Tiago Monteiro appeared competitive in third.

Tarquini's performance could not be maintained in the decisive Q3 session for the five fastest Q2 runners, where he was over a second slower than his Q2 effort after a scruffy lap. He finished behind Monteiro in fifth.

Customer Honda runner Mehdi Bennani threatened to cause an upset by bumping Loeb from Q3. The Moroccan Proteam driver had to settle for a still impressive sixth in Q2, ahead of leading Chevrolet driver Tom Chilton.

Reigate driver Chilton, who headed a gaggle of five RML-built Cruzes in the second segment of qualifying, was partnered by ROAL team-mate Tom Coronel for the first time since the Marrakech season opener.

Dutchman Coronel was ruled out of round two in France owing to a heavy crash in Morocco, but personnel at ROAL and RML worked long hours to ready a new car for the WTCC veteran in time for Hungary.

After a shock absorber problem on Friday, Coronel finished behind Chilton in eighth.

On the circuit where he scored his lone Formula Renault 3.5 win, series returnee Pasquale di Sabatino took the TC2 pole honors for Engstler Motorsport.

Originally on Autosport.com