WTCC

Muller Edges Lopez for Hungaroring WTCC Pole

1 Mins read
Yvan Muller - Photo Credit: Citroen Racing
Yvan Muller - Photo Credit: Citroen Racing

Yvan Muller narrowly defeated Jose Maria Lopez to claim World Touring Car Championship pole position at the Hungaroring in another Citroen lock-out of the top three.

Honda driver Gabriele Tarquini threatened to break the French marque’s stranglehold after topping Q2, but his Q3 lap was poor and he finished fifth.

That left Muller top of the Q3 times, 0.034 seconds ahead of championship leader Lopez. Sebastien Loeb was 0.386s slower than Muller in third.

Tiago Monteiro was within half a second of the pace in fourth in his Honda, ahead of team-mate Tarquini.

Mehdi Bennani narrowly missed out on a Q3 place in his Civic, taking sixth ahead of the Chevrolet quartet of Tom Chilton, Tom Coronel, Gianni Morbidelli and Hugo Valente. Dusan Borkovic had been tenth – and thus on reverse grid pole for race two – but had his times deleted for failing a ride height test, promoting his Campos Racing team-mate Valente.

Local hero Norbert Michelisz had a disappointing qualifying. He will line up 11th for both races after failing to set a time in Q2 due to a steering failure.

British drivers Rob Huff and James Thompson will start 12th and 13th respectively in their Ladas after narrowly missing out on Q2.

1882 posts

About author
Peter joined the TCF team in September 2010 and covers GP2 and GP3 along with WTCC and Formula Two. You can find him on twitter at @PeteAllen_
Articles
Related posts
TCR EuropeTCR International SeriesTCR UKWTCC

TCR Series Roundup - 24th March 2019

6 Mins read
The Checkered Flag looks back at the recent news and results from the various TCR Series competing around the world that has been released over the past seven days
TCR International SeriesWTCCWTCR

WTCC becomes WTCR in TCR regulations adoption

1 Mins read
The World Touring Car Championship will become the World Touring Car Cup in 2018 as the series adopts the succesful TCR concept…
TCR International SeriesWTCC

TCR and WTCC in rumoured merge for 2018

1 Mins read
A merge is expected between the TCR International Series and the WTCC ahead of the 2018 season, as the WTCC seeks to save its championship.