Paul Ricard, Qual.: López quickest at WTCC opener in France
The Citroën driver set a time of 1m28.950s
José María López got his pursuit of a third FIA World Touring Car Championship title off to a fine start by triumphing in qualifying for the WTCC JVCKENWOOD Race of France.
The Citroën driver set a time of 1m28.950s in the one-lap shootout of Q3, putting him 0. 263 seconds ahead of Honda’s Tiago Monteiro.
As the quickest driver in Q2, López’s team-mate Yvan Muller was the last driver to run in Q3 but the Frenchman ended up third.
Tom Coronel made it to Q3 in his RML-built Cruze and will line up fourth on the grid for the second race of the weekend even though he aborted his Q3 attempted. Fifth will be Nicky Catsburg, who was unable to make it out into Q3 in his LADA.
Thed Björk came close to getting Polestar into Q3 at the start of their first maiden full-time WTCC campaign. He had to make do with sixth but still made it five different cars in the top six in Q2. Norbert Michelisz was seventh for Honda in front of Citroën man Mehdi Bennani, the other Polestar-entered Volvo driver Fredrik Ekblom and new Honda signing Rob Huff. LADA pair Hugo Valente and Gabriele Tarquini will share row six on the grid for both of Sunday’s races.
WTCR
- The race of Marrakech is cancelled, replaced by Salzburg
- Malaysia, Race 3: Kristoffersson takes victory as Michelisz claims title
- Malaysia, Race 2: Guerrieri wins to set-up final-round title decider with Michelisz
- Malaysia, Race 1: Michelisz triumph to extend points lead
- New tracks plus weight rule tweak as WTCR revs up for next three seasons