WTCC: Lopez dominates Nordschleife qualifying

Citroen's Jose Maria Lopez stormed to a dominant pole position for Saturday's main World Touring Car Championship race at the Nurburgring after smashing the Nordschleife WTCC lap record.

In unexpectedly dry conditions, Lopez was fastest on his first run and, after a red-flag period to clear a stricken European Touring Car Cup car, bettered that effort by five seconds on his second run as he recorded a time of 8m38.229s in his Citroen C-Elysee. But the Argentinian went even quicker on his final run, smashing the previous lap record by 1.9 seconds with an effort of 8m35.541s.

"I found the confidence in the last few runs," said Lopez. "This is teamwork, not just me. I had the confidence because I was in P1 to try and push more. With low fuel in the end it was a fantastic."

Teammate Yvan Muller wound up second quickest, but found himself 3.573s down on Lopez's time in his C-Elysee.

Tom Coronel was a fine third, a further second back from Muller, while Norbert Michelisz was fourth and fastest of the three factory Honda cars.

Tom Chilton's strong form translated into fifth on the grid for Sunday's main race, with Thed Bjork a surprise sixth, with both he and teammate Fredrik Ekblom having opted to focus on race setup over single lap pace for the majority of the weekend.

Rob Huff was seventh in the second Honda Civic, although he will take a penalty after a crash in first practice on Sunday evening wrecked his original engine.

Nicky Catsburg was seventh and the fastest of Lada's contingent, with Mehdi Bennani and Huff's teammate Tiago Monteiro completing the top 10.

Aside from the mid-session stoppage, there was one incident of note as Lada's Hugo Valente crashed toward the end of his second lap of the 14-mile circuit.

In-car footage and audio suggested that Valente had a mechanical issue and lost control of his car through the fast Antoniusbuche curves at the end of the Dottinger Hohe straight, spinning through the Tiergarten curve and smacking the barrier before stoping at Hohenrain.

Valente walked away from his second crash of the weekend unharmed but will start 13th, alongside Sabine Schmitz. His crash also ruled Lada out of the post-qualifying MAC3 time trial, with only two of the marque's cars available.

Valente's demise left Honda and Citroen to battle it out for MAC3 honors, with Honda taking a surprise victory. Citroen, again opting to flank factory drivers Lopez and Muller with Sebastien Loeb Racing's Mehdi Bennani, stormed out of the blocks and was eight seconds up on Honda through the opening split.

That advantage was reduced narrowly in the second, third and fourth sectors but it disappeared completely in the final sector, with Bennani crossing the line 1.564s slower than the time Huff had managed at the tail of Honda's train.

Lopez was told to save fuel on Dottinger Hohe, with Citroen appearing not to have refueled sufficiently in the break between qualifying and MAC3.

QUALIFYING TIMES

Originally on Autosport.com