Nordschleife, Qual.: López produces stunning pole lap

José María López took the pole position for the Main Race at FIA WTCC Race of Germany with a sensational record lap of the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

The two-time world champion was already sitting on provisional pole when he achieved an 8m35.541s lap on his final attempt, moving 3.573 seconds clear of Citroën team-mate Yvan Muller at the top of the times and bettering his qualifying record from 2015 by 1.8 seconds.

Tom Coronel produced another outstanding qualifying performance to claim third as the best WTCC Trophy runner in his ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet Cruze. He was half a second quicker than lead Honda driver Norbert Michelisz, who had a similar gap over Tom Chilton, the Sébastien Loeb Racing driver losing his WTCC Trophy supremacy to former team-mate Coronel.

Nicky Catsburg was the last to cross the line and claimed sixth ahead of Thed Björk, who took an encouraging seventh in an upturn of form for Nürburgring first-timers Polestar Cyan Racing.

Tiago Monteiro ended up 10th to take pole position for the Opening Race, behind Rob Huff and Mehdi Bennani in the times.

Hugo Valente ended up 13th behind Gabriele Tarquini and Fredrik Ekblom after suffering his second crash of the week. ‘Queen of the Ring’ Sabine Schmitz qualified 14th ahead of John Filippi, Grégoire Demoustier and Ferenc Ficza.