Shanghai, Qual.: López beats home hero Ma to China WTCC pole

José María López will start on the pole position for the first WTCC Race of China in Shanghai this afternoon following a stunning lap of the Shanghai International Circuit.

In a dramatic qualifying session, which had been put back to this morning to enable a damaged safety barrier to be fully repaired, Argentine López outpaced Citroën team-mate and home hero Ma Qing Hua in the top-five shootout for first place by 0.114s.

Nicky Catsburg will start third for the Rosneft-backed LADA team with Citroën Total pair Sébastien Loeb and Yvan Muller completing the top five in their Yokohama-shod C-Elysée WTCCs.

LADA’s Rob Huff just failed to make the cut for Q3 along with John Filippi, who nevertheless ended up as the leading Yokohama Drivers’ Trophy contender for the first time in 2015 in his Chevrolet RML Cruze. Gabriele Tarquini was the top Honda driver in eighth place.

Hugo Valente completed Qualifying Q2 in P10 and will start the reverse-grid second race from pole alongside Tom Coronel, who was ninth fastest in Q2 in his similar Chevrolet. Mehdi Bennani and Nicolas Lapierre were P11 and P12 respectively.

Honda drivers Norbert Michelisz and Tiago Monteiro were among a number of high-profile drivers to miss out on a Q2 slot with Tom Chilton, Stefano D’Aste, Grégoire Demoustier also failing to progress.