WTCC: Lopez and Bennani share poles

Citroen's Jose Maria Lopez claimed his second pole position of the 2016 World Touring Car Championship season at the Hungaroring.

Lopez was in a class of his own in the third part of qualifying, the pole position shootout, setting a best time of 1m46.109s which was 0.6 seconds faster than any of his rivals could manage. Pole is the Argentinian's first in Hungary, and the five extra points he receives as a result move him to the head of the championship standings ahead of Honda's Tiago Monteiro.

Tom Coronel claimed a place on the front row for tomorrow's main race second place in his ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet Cruze, having edged out the two Honda Civics of Rob Huff and Monteiro. Thed Bjork, making his and Polestar's first appearance in Q3, was fifth in his Volvo S60 after running first in the pole position shootout.

The Swede secured the last slot in the shootout with an early lap in the second part of qualifying, with late improvements for Huff and Monteiro meaning home favourite Norbert Michelisz was forced to settle for sixth on the main race grid after he was bumped out of the Q2 top five. Nicky Catsburg was the best of Lada's contingent, taking seventh in his Vesta, while Yvan Muller could only manage eighth in the second factory Citroen C-Elysee.

The Frenchman scraped into the second part of qualifying after Lada's Hugo Valente and Campos Racing's John Filippi failed to improve significantly to displace him, but Muller, who had to abort his first run in Q1, could not take advantage of his second chance - although he will start Sunday's opening reversed-grid race from third.

Fredrik Ekblom was ninth in the second Volvo S60 Polestar, while Mehdi Bennani edged out Sebastien Loeb Racing team-mate Tom Chilton for 10th, which secured the Moroccan pole for the opening race.

CITROEN TOPS TIME TRIAL

In the MAC3 time trial, Citroen took a provisional victory ahead of Honda and Lada.

Yvan Muller completed the French marque's run in a time of 3m41.538s to hand Citroen it's third win in as many rounds - although both its and Lada's runs are under investigation by the stewards. After Bennani had dropped off the back of his factory counterparts in the first two runs of the time trial in France and Slovakia, he slotted between Lopez and Muller at the start of Citroen's two laps and clung on well to Lopez who led the train.

They crossed the line comfortably clear of Lada's effort, and although the Honda trio were initially quicker through the opening two splits, they gradually fell away.

Monteiro completed Honda's run 0.174s slower than Citroen's - the largest margin of victory in MAC3 since its adoption at the start of the season, with Citroen having pipped Lada by 0.030s at Paul Ricard, before Citroen and Honda recorded identical times last weekend at the Slovakia Ring.

Originally on Autosport.com