World Touring: Lopez secures fifth pole of 2014

World Touring Car Championship leader Jose Maria Lopez achieved his fifth pole position of the season at Shanghai. The Argentinean's lap of 1m48.782 denied his increasingly impressive Chinese team-mate Ma Qing Hua a maiden pole position in front of his home fans.

"I didn't improve very much from Q1 to Q2, so I decided to make a small change on the car," explained Lopez. "When my engineer told me Ma's provisional pole time I knew it would be complicated to beat him, as he really knows this circuit, and I needed to find 0.6s.

"I had never done that time this weekend. The change helped, but it was also a clean lap and I pushed hard."

Lopez enjoys a 68-point advantage in the drivers' standings over Yvan Muller, who will start tomorrow morning's opening race from third.

Reigning WTCC champion Muller was fastest in Q2, and the final runner in the Q3 single-lap shootout segment. The Alsace racer appeared to lose ground to his rivals in the first sector and was unable to recover the time over the remainder of the lap.

Zengo Motorsport's consistent performer Norbert Michelisz ended the afternoon as the leading Honda runner in fourth.

Sebastien Loeb had been on course to beat the Hungarian's Q3 time, but on the final left-hand kink onto the pit straight clipped an apex marker safety cone and sustained minor damage to his C-Elysee.

Qualifying in Shanghai was the first occasion four Citroens have progressed into Q3 this year, and the Versailles-based team requires just two points from this weekend's meeting to seal the manufacturers' title.

The factory JAS Hondas of Tiago Monteiro and Gabriele Tarquini will line up sixth and seventh for race one, ahead of Beijing Goldenport winner Tom Chilton.

The second ROAL Chevrolet of Tom Coronel was tenth in the closing minutes of Q2, and on course to achieve the race two reversed-grid pole, when the Dutchman was called in by officials to be weighed. There was insufficient time for Coronel to exit the pits afterward before the Q2 checkered flag, and the veteran was left with a nervous wait to discover if he would be bumped.

Coronel was out of luck. The four Hondas circulated closely to assist Mehdi Bennani's last lap chances, and the Proteam driver demoted Coronel from the coveted position by 0.020s.