Termas de Rio Hondo WTCC: Jose Maria Lopez claims home pole

The result extends Lopez's lead in the drivers' standings over his factory Citroen team-mate Yvan Muller.

"I had a little pressure because it was my home event," said Lopez, "but the good thing is when it works out it is almost like a victory.

"I didn't know what to expect going into Q3 as sometimes this year practice form hasn't translated into the qualifying positions, so I just focused on the lap.

"But after taking pole I was really able to enjoy the slow-down lap with the spectators, and it's special to have all of my family here."

Reigning WTCC champion Muller claimed a front row starting position for Sunday's opening race after complaining of losing time with turn-in oversteer at the long right-hand Turn 1 on his Q3 super-pole lap.

In contrast to his fellow C-Elysee drivers, retired World Rally legend Sebastien Loeb did not have the experience of competing at the 2.986-mile circuit in last year's WTCC event to call on.

Loeb had a single winter test at the venue for reference prior to this weekend's round and admitted "trying too hard" had contributed to mistakes en route to third.

Zengo Motorsport's Norbert Michelisz proved that missing Friday's test, owing to travel delays, was no obstacle to a strong result by securing fourth and top non-Citroen honours in his Honda.

Factory Honda racer Tiago Monteiro was first to take to the track in the Q3, reserved for the five fastest Q2 runners, and the former Formula 1 driver repeated his Q2 effort of fifth.

A late Q2 effort by Tom Chilton moved the Briton into sixth place ahead of Monteiro's team-mate Gabriele Tarquini, while Mehdi Bennani made it four Hondas in the top eight.

Fresh from victory in a Super Touring Ford Mondeo at the Silverstone Classic last weekend, Lada racer Rob Huff displayed the effectiveness of his Granta's revised front suspension geometry and weight-loss programme to take 10th and the race two reversed-grid pole.

Franz Engstler added to his 2014 TC2 pole tally, while the second Engstler BMW of WTCC debutant Camilo Echevarria is set to line up from last position.

Pos  Driver              Team/Car           Time       Gap
 1.  Jose María Lopez    Citroen            1m43.766s
 2.  Yvan Muller         Citroen            1m44.194s  +0.428s
 3.  Sebastien Loeb      Citroen            1m44.310s  +0.544s
 4.  Norbert Michelisz   Zengo Honda        1m44.408s  +0.642s
 5.  Tiago Monteiro      Honda              1m45.174s  +1.408s
 6.  Tom Chilton         ROAL Chevrolet     1m44.821s  Q2
 7.  Gabriele Tarquini   Honda              1m45.263s  Q2
 8.  Mehdi Bennani       Proteam Honda      1m45.389s  Q2
 9.  Hugo Valente        Campos Chevrolet   1m45.542s  Q2
10.  Rob Huff            Lada               1m45.572s  Q2
11.  Tom Coronel         ROAL Chevrolet     1m45.696s  Q2
12.  Rene Munnich        Munnich Chevrolet  1m45.830s  Q2
13.  James Thompson      Lada               1m45.964s  Q1
14.  Dusan Borkovic      Campos Chevrolet   1m46.037s  Q1
15.  Gianni Morbidelli   Munnich Chevrolet  1m46.068s  Q1
16.  Mikhail Kozlovskiy  Lada               1m46.622s  Q1
17.  Franz Engstler      Engstler BMW       1m50.499s  Q1*
18.  John Filippi        SEAT               1m51.722s  Q1*
19.  Camilo Echevarria   Engstler BMW       1m55.658s  Q1*

* TC2