WTCR Nurburgring: Bjork beats Muller to pole in Hyundai 1-2-3

Bjork, the 2017 World Touring Car champion, set a fastest time of 8m58.700s in his YMR Hyundai i30 N to secure top spot by 0.079 seconds from Muller, handing the Swede his second pole of the season.

That time compares to the fastest qualifying lap of 8m35.541s recorded during the WTCC's TC1 era by Citroen driver Jose Maria Lopez in 2016, although Bjork's effort was comfortably the fastest qualifying time set by a TCR car on the 15.77-mile circuit that incorporates the grand prix loop.

Norbert Michelisz completed the top three in his BRC Racing i30 N at the end of the session - although the Hungarian had set the session's fastest first sector on his second flying lap, only to abandon that run after going off in the second sector.

Esteban Guerrieri was the only other driver to get within a second of Bjork's time, hauling his Munnich Motorsport Honda Civic up to fourth after the chequered flag had been shown.

Rob Huff secured fifth in his Sebastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen Golf GTi, setting the fastest fourth sector of all, while wildcard entrant Rene Rast was the leading Audi representative in sixth in his WRT-run RS3 LMS.

Gabriele Tarquini salvaged seventh in the fourth i30 N - qualifying two seconds away from Bjork's time - just ahead of WRT regular Gordon Shedden and the two Boutsen Ginion Civic drivers Tom Coronel and Benjamin Lessennes.

James Thompson was 26th in his Munnich Motorsport Civic, and slowest of all in his first qualifying session on the Nordschleife.

But the Briton will start Thursday's opening race ahead of Zengo Motorsport's David Szabo, who did not take part in qualifying after crashing in the wet in first practice.

Result

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Gap
1	Thed Bjork	YMR	Hyundai	8m58.700s
2	Yvan Muller	YMR	Hyundai	0.079s
3	Norbert Michelisz	BRC Racing Team	Hyundai	0.365s
4	Esteban Guerrieri	Munnich Motorsport	Honda	0.954s
5	Rob Huff	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Volkswagen	1.209s
6	Rene Rast	WRT	Audi	1.771s
7	Gabriele Tarquini	BRC Racing Team	Hyundai	2.028s
8	Gordon Shedden	WRT	Audi	2.535s
9	Tom Coronel	Boutsen Ginion Racing	Honda	3.453s
10	Benjamin Lessennes	Boutsen Ginion Racing	Honda	3.528s
11	Yann Ehrlacher	Munnich Motorsport	Honda	3.989s
12	Jean-Karl Vernay	WRT	Audi	4.338s
13	Pepe Oriola	Campos Racing	Cupra	5.403s
14	Mat'o Homola	DG Sport Competition	Peugeot	5.757s
15	Frederic Vervisch	Comtoyou Racing	Audi	6.209s
16	Denis Dupont	Comtoyou Racing	Audi	6.521s
17	Aurelien Panis	Comtoyou Racing	Audi	7.032s
18	Aurelien Comte	DG Sport Competition	Peugeot	7.286s
19	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Volkswagen	7.492s
20	Nathanael Berthon	Comtoyou Racing	Audi	7.619s
21	Kris Richard	KCMG	Honda	9.582s
22	Fabrizio Giovanardi	Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo	9.939s
23	Gianni Morbidelli	Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo	11.233s
24	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Cupra	12.026s
25	Norbert Nagy	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra	12.121s
26	James Thompson	Munnich Motorsport	Honda	14.728s