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Slovakia WTCC: Yvan Muller beats Jose Maria Lopez to pole

Yvan Muller beat Citroen team-mate and World Touring Car Championship title rival Jose Maria Lopez to pole by two tenths of a second in a tense Q3 shootout in Slovakia

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:

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap
1 Yvan Muller Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 2m03.736s -
2 Jose Maria Lopez Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 2m03.959s 0.223s
3 Sebastien Loeb Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 2m04.583s 0.847s
4 Rob Huff LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 2m04.598s 0.862s
5 Nicky Catsburg LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 2m04.905s 1.169s
6 Hugo Valente Campos Racing Chevrolet 2m04.858s -
7 Ma Qinghua Citroen Total WTCC Citroen 2m05.012s -
8 Tom Chilton ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet 2m05.108s -
9 Gabriele Tarquini Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 2m05.312s -
10 Jaap van Lagen LADA Sport Rosneft Lada 2m05.346s -
11 Mat'o Homola Campos Racing Chevrolet 2m06.081s -
12 Mehdi Bennani Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen 2m06.103s -
13 Norbert Michelisz Zengo Motorsport Honda 2m05.659s -
14 John Filippi Campos Racing Chevrolet 2m05.691s -
15 Tom Coronel ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet 2m05.729s -
16 Stefano D'Aste All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport Chevrolet 2m06.191s -
17 Tiago Monteiro Honda Racing Team JAS Honda 2m06.263s -
18 Nestor Girolami Honda Racing team Sweden Honda 2m06.264s -
19 Gregoire Demoustier Craft-Bamboo Racing Chevrolet - -


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