Norbert Michelisz

Two-time FIA World Touring Car Champion José María López produced a top-drawer lap in qualifying to beat Tom Coronel to pole position at the FIA WTCC Race of Hungary by six tenths of a second.

Citroën driver López was quickest in all three sectors on his lap in the Q3 shoot-out for the DHL-presented pole position to set a time of 1m46.109s, beating the benchmark set by Coronel by 0.609 seconds.

Chevrolet RML Cruze driver Coronel equalled his career-best qualifying result, the WTCC Trophy contender beating Honda drivers Rob Huff and Tiago Monteiro to a place on the front row. Polestar’s Thed Björk made Q3 and was a close fifth behind the two Hondas.

Hungarian hero Norbert Michelisz just missed out on a place in Q3 and will start the Main Race from sixth. Nicky Catsburg will share row four of the grid with Yvan Muller, with Fredrik Ekblom and Mehdi Bennani on row five.

Tom Chilton and Gabriele Tarquini missed out on the top 10 and will start both races from the sixth row of the grid.

In Q1, Muller only just avoided being eliminated, with Hugo Valente instead failing to make the top 12, together with John Filippi, Grégoire Demoustier, René Münnich and Ferenc Ficza.

Source: FIA WTCC

Q1

Q2

Q3