Slovakia WTCC: Yvan Muller beats Jose Maria Lopez to pole

Sebastien Loeb placed his C-Elysee third on the grid and, with 60kg of compensation weight noticeably blunting the competitive edge of Honda's Civics, Lada provided the biggest challenge to Citroen as Rob Huff and Nicky Catsburg lined up fourth and fifth.

Factory Honda driver Tiago Monteiro and Hungaroring race-two winner Norbert Michelisz were the most prominent casualties of Q1.

Monteiro struggled to set a top-10 time on his first set of fresh rubber and could not improve his position, even after trying a second run with new front tyres.

Michelisz ended the first part of the session just outside the top 12 cut-off, demoted thanks to a late effort by WTCC debutant Mato Homola, who showed an impressive turn of pace in his 2014-spec Chevrolet Cruze.

Another WTCC newcomer, Argentine Super TC2000 champion Nestor Girolami, also exited in Q1, aborting his final effort to escape the elimination zone.

That left just one Civic in Q2, and Gabriele Tarquini completed the session in ninth place as the pacesetting Citroens of Muller, Lopez and Loeb led Lada-mounted Huff and Catsburg to progress to Q3.

Jaap van Lagen missed the Q3 cut, but by setting the 10th fastest time in Q2 ensured that a Lada will start on pole in Sunday's reverse-grid second race.

Catsburg was first to run in the Q3 single-lap shootout, but after setting the fastest time yet through the first sector he was scrappier in the second, posting a 2m04.905s that would be eclipsed by both his own team-mate and the fastest Citroens.

Huff then undercut Catsburg by three tenths, only to see his tenure at the top cut short by Sebastien Loeb, albeit by only a hundredth of a second.

Lopez then produced one of his typically stunning single laps, over six tenths faster than Loeb, but Muller somehow contrived to go quicker still, establishing a margin in sector one and holding it for the rest of the lap in spite of a hairy moment in the final third.

RACE ONE STARTING GRID: