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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