WTCC Moscow: Nicky Catsburg on pole as Lada dominates

First practice pacesetter Catsburg translated his dry pace when the rain arrived and topped all three parts of qualifying as he and Lada team-mates Gabriele Tarquini and Hugo Valente locked out a qualifying 1-2-3 at the marque's home race.

Catsburg was the last to attempt his pole position shootout lap but showed no signs of pressure, setting a new best second sector on his outlap.

The 28-year-old eventually set a best time of 1m57.722s, usurping Tarquini by 1.438 seconds.

"It couldn't be any better," said a shocked Catsburg.

"I didn't expect this at all - to be 1-2-3 with such a gap to the others.

"It shows that Lada have really made some progress."

Behind third-placed Valente, James Thompson was a fourth in his Munnich Motorsport Chevrolet Cruze.

The Briton, making his third stand-in appearance of the season in place of team owner and driver Rene Munnich, dragged his way into the third part of qualifying in fifth at the expense of double world champion Jose Maria Lopez and went on to outqualify Honda's Norbert Michelisz.

With the additional two points for qualifying fourth, Thompson doubles his haul for the 2016 season.

Michelisz improved late on in Q2 and ensured no Citroen made the third part of qualifying, with Lopez the best-placed runner in sixth having been bumped out of the top five.

Tom Coronel separated the Argentinian from works Citroen team-mate Yvan Muller, while Mehdi Bennani was the best of the independent Sebastien Loeb Racing C-Elysees in ninth.

While Michelisz was able to make into the shootout, his Honda team-mates were not able to find the same improvements and finished Q2 in 10th and 11th.

Practice two pacesetter Tiago Monteiro was the higher placed in 10th and will start from the opening race pole, 0.079s clear of Rob Huff in the third Civic.

Behind them, both Polestar Volvos were eliminated in the first part of qualifying.

Fredrik Ekblom nearly scraped his way into the part of the second part of qualifying but fell a quarter of a second shy of deposing Bennani, while Thed Bjork could only manage 15th.

LADA'S TIME TRIAL SUCCESS TAKEN AWAY

Catsburg, Tarquini and Valente looked as though they would add to Lada's qualifying success with its first victory in the MAC3 time trial for manufacturers, only to be stripped of that win when Tarquini incurred a penalty for a jump start.

While Catsburg made a sluggish getaway from the standing start, Tarquini appeared to jolt forward before the signal had been given to start.

The Italian then streaked into the lead of the three-car train, with Valente slotting in between him and Catsburg.

Even pent-up behind Valente for the entirety of the two laps, Catsburg completed the run in a time of 4m04.355s.

Honda's three did their best to catch the pacesetters but always trailed on the timesheets.

Monteiro was able to claw back time in the final sector of Honda's second lap though, and while he crossed the line 0.649s down on Lada's time, Honda instead inherited the win courtesy of Tarquini's penalty.

Citroen's run was far less successful. Lopez and Muller jostled for the lead of the train into Turn 1, but with Lopez prevailing, Muller soon fell away and backed up Tom Chilton, the SLR driver making his first MAC3 appearance.

Chilton was eventually allowed past the Frenchman at the start of Citroen's second lap, but any hopes of victory were over by then with the three forfeiting the best part of three seconds through the fourth split.

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