Moscow, Qual.: Four champions to the fore as Muller takes Russia pole

A thrilling qualifying session at the Moscow Raceway

By Franck Drui

6 June 2015 - 13:39
Moscow, Qual.: Four champions to (...)

Yvan Muller outgunned his FIA World Touring Car Championship rivals to take pole position for ROSNEFT WTCC Race of Russia during a thrilling qualifying session at the Moscow Raceway this afternoon, which ended with four world champions filling the top four positions on the grid for Sunday’s opening race.

Citroën driver Muller beat team-mate and current championship leader José María López to top spot by 0.046s with Gabriele Tarquini third for Honda and Rob Huff fourth for LADA, the first appearance by the Russian team in Qualifying Q3. And with Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy pacesetter Tom Chilton fifth in his Chevrolet Cruze, it means four manufacturers are represented in the top five to underline the WTCC’s hugely competitive nature.

Following his sub-qualifying lap record performance, Muller, who won the inaugural WTCC Race of Russia in 2013, said: “To be on pole position is always important – now I need to do a good start in the race tomorrow. My lap was good, there was no real mistake and generally I was quite pleased with the whole of the lap. It shows the level of championship when the results are so tight.”

Elsewhere, Ma Qing Hua, who won on his WTCC debut in Russia last season, was sixth, Hugo Valente seventh and Norbert Michelisz eighth. WTCC rookie Nicky Catsburg took ninth for LADA with Tiago Monteiro 10th to claim pole position for the reverse grid second race. “We realised very quickly we were not going for pole so we decided to be smart and use the rules to our advantage by going for 10th place,” said Honda driver Monteiro. “It’s not a guarantee we will win the second race because we now need to find a good set-up and I’m a little bit behind with that this weekend.”

Muller’s second pole of 2015 earns him five bonus points and puts him ahead of fellow Citroën driver Sébastien Loeb in the drivers’ standings behind López. Loeb was 11th quickest after conceding he had made some mistakes during Q2, insisting he was not chasing the all-important 10th place. Jaap van Lagen was also eliminated in the second phase of qualifying, while Mehdi Bennani, Tom Coronel, Stefano D’Aste, Grégoire Demoustier, Rickard Rydell and John Filippi were unable to progress beyond Q1.

Sunday’s action features two 16-lap races with race one getting underway at 12h15 local time followed by race two at 13h25.

Pos. Driver Team Car Q1 time Q2 time Q3 time
1 Yvan Muller Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1:37.900 1:38.182 1:37.923
2 Jose Maria Lopez Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1:38.207 1:38.089 1:37.969
3 Gabriele Tarquini Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 1:38.104 1:38.406 1:38.091
4 Robert Huff LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 1:38.325 1:38.624 1:38.639
5 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet 1:38.948 1:38.785 1:39.139
---------- -------- -------- -------- --------- ---------
6 Ma Qing Hua Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1:38.780 1:38.836
7 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet 1:38.518 1:38.873
8 Norbert Michelisz Zengo Motorsport Honda 1:38.579 1:38.918
9 Nicky Catsburg LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 1:38.764 1:39.047
10 Tiago Monteiro Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 1:38.888 1:39.071
11 Sebastien Loeb Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1:38.613 1:39.139
12 Jaap Van Lagen LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 1:38.863 1:39.195
---------- -------- -------- -------- --------- ---------
13 Mehdi Bennani Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 1:39.172
14 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet 1:39.550
15 Stefano D’Aste Munnich Motorsport Chevrolet 1:39.867
16 Grégoire Demoustier Craft-Bamboo Racing Chevrolet 1:39.951
17 Rickard Rydell Nika International Honda 1:40.060
18 John Filippi Campos Racing Chevrolet 1:40.127

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