Buriram WTCC: Jose Maria Lopez claims pole as 2015 title looms

The five drivers to progress into the third and final segment were the quintet in C-Elyssees, of which Lopez was the third to go for his single lap attempt.

The Argentinian went to the top of the times on a 1m37.916s ahead of Sebastien Loeb and Ma Qing Hua, with Yvan Muller and Mehdi Bennani still to run.

Muller, who had only just scraped out of Q1, had to settle for third after losing time in sector two while Bennani ended up fourth.

The qualifying result adds another two points to Lopez's championship margin over Muller, which now stands at 77 with a top six finish therefore enough to seal the title.

Hugo Valente was the best non-Citroen driver in sixth in his Chevrolet, ahead of top Lada man Nick Catsburg.

Tom Chilton had been on course to take 10th and the race two reverse-grid pole in Q2, and as the last driver across the line he could have safely backed out of his final effort, but he instead improved his time and climbed to eighth.

That produced an all-Honda front row for race two, with Tiago Monteiro ninth quickest and Norbert Michelisz 10th.

Rob Huff and John Filippi completed the 12 drivers that featured in Q2.

One that failed to make it out of the first session was the remaining Honda driver Gabriele Tarquini, who was the casualty when Muller rescued himself from 16th to 12th at the death.

Tarquini was already facing a five-place grid penalty for race one, carried over from Shanghai, which will now drop him to the rear.

Others in trouble in Q1 were Tom Coronel and Stefano D'Aste, who spent most of the session in the pits in their Chevrolets. When Coronel did get out on track, he suffered from obvious braking issues.

The two WTCC veterans therefore propped up the times behind local newcomer Tin Sritrai.

RACE ONE STARTING GRID:

RACE TWO STARTING GRID: