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Marrakech WTCC: Jose Maria Lopez claims another pole for Citroen

Jose Maria Lopez remained calm in a chaotic World Touring Car Championship qualifying session in Marrakech to claim his fifth consecutive pole position

With his Citroen team-mates Sebastien Loeb and Yvan Muller failing to make it through to the final shootout, reigning champion Lopez had a relatively straightforward run and outpaced local hero Mehdi Bennani by a quarter of a second.

Bennani was unsurprisingly delighted to secure a place on the front row in his Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen, while the similar machine of Ma Qing Hua will start third.

The three C-Elysees were the only cars to complete flying laps in Q3.

Hugo Valente and Tom Chilton both made it through in their Chevrolet Cruzes with upgraded engines from RML for this weekend, but were always due to start race one from the back of the grid anyway as a penalty for those powerplant changes.

Chilton - who said he was cross with himself for even getting through to Q3 when he was only aiming for the reverse grid pole for race two - opted not to risk his car.

Valente chose to go for a hot lap but promptly crashed, giving his Campos crew more work to do after his tough start to the season in Argentina.

The second part of qualifying had a dramatic finish, beginning with Tom Coronel slowing with a suspected driveshaft problem while sitting fifth with just a couple of minutes remaining.

Loeb then briefly snatched fifth before being shuffled down to eighth by a series of improvements from others.

Norbert Michelisz was only sixth fastest but will gain two places when Valente and Chilton are pushed back.

Tiago Monteiro was seventh ahead of Loeb and Coronel. Muller wound up 10th and claimed pole position on the reverse grid for race two, but he will start outside of the top 10 in race one because of a five-place grid penalty for contact in Argentina.

Italians Gabriele Tarquini and Stefano D'Aste were the final two drivers to make it through to Q2, but were made to settle for 11th and 12th respectively.

In Q1, Michelisz had rescued himself from the drop zone with a minute remaining, relegating Rob Huff outside the top 12.

The Briton was unable to improve with his final effort, forcing him out together with Lada team-mates James Thompson and Mikhail Kozlovskiy, the Russian making his debut in the new Vesta this weekend.

Also falling at the first hurdle were Proteam Honda's Dusan Borkovic and the French Chevrolet drivers John Filippi and Gregoire Demoustier.

NEWS UPDATE: Underweight Michelisz gets penalty

RACE ONE STARTING GRID:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Jose Maria Lopez Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m43.854s -
2 Mehdi Bennani Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 1m44.109s 0.255s
3 Ma Qinghua Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m44.582s 0.728s
4 Tiago Monteiro Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 1m44.118s 0.264s
5 Sebastien Loeb Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m44.150s -
6 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet 1m44.177s -
7 Norbert Michelisz Zengo Motorsport Honda 1m44.102s -
8 Gabriele Tarquini Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 1m44.313s -
9 Stefano D'Aste All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport Chevrolet 1m44.573s -
10 Yvan Muller Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 1m44.185s -
11 Mikhail Kozlovskiy LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 1m46.407s -
12 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet - -
13 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet - -
14 Rob Huff LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 1m44.834s -
15 James Thompson LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 1m46.113s -
16 Gregoire Demoustier Craft-Bamboo Racing Chevrolet 1m46.261s -
17 John Filippi Campos Racing Chevrolet 1m45.773s -
1001 Dusan Borkovic Proteam Racing Honda 1m45.087s -

RACE TWO STARTING GRID:

Pos Driver Team Car
1 Yvan Muller Citroen Total WTCC Citroen
2 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet
3 Sebastien Loeb Citroen Total WTCC Citroen
4 Tiago Monteiro Honda Racing Team JAS Honda
5 Norbert Michelisz Zengo Motorsport Honda
6 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet
7 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet
8 Ma Qinghua Citroen Total WTCC Citroen
9 Mehdi Bennani Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen
10 Jose Maria Lopez Citroen Total WTCC Citroen
11 Gabriele Tarquini Honda Racing Team JAS Honda
12 Stefano D'Aste All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport Chevrolet
13 Rob Huff LADA Sport Rosneft Lada
14 John Filippi Campos Racing Chevrolet
15 Gregoire Demoustier Craft-Bamboo Racing Chevrolet
16 Mikhail Kozlovskiy LADA Sport Rosneft Lada
17 James Thompson LADA Sport Rosneft Lada

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