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Moscow WTCC: Jose Maria Lopez secures third pole of 2014

Points leader Jose Maria Lopez bounced back from free practice struggles to claim pole position for round six of the World Touring Car Championship at Moscow Raceway

The Citroen star, who is contesting his debut season in the championship, also extends his lead in the drivers' standings to 46 points over reigning champion Yvan Muller.

The Frenchman was a surprising omission from the final stage of qualifying, after battling an apparently oversteer-prone C-Elysee in Q2.

Factory Honda racers Gabriele Tarquini and Tiago Monteiro capitalised on Muller's troubles and produced their finest qualifying showing of the season - the Civic duo claiming second and third.

Tarquini will start alongside Lopez on the front row of Sunday's opening race, having ended Q3 0.226 seconds behind Lopez's benchmark time of 1m38.651s.

Nine-time World Rally champion Sebastien Loeb edged out leading RML Chevrolet Cruze competitor Tom Chilton by 0.118s to claim fourth place.

Watch highlight videos on the AUTOSPORT WTCC page

Privateer Honda runners Mehdi Bennani and Norbert Michelisz ended the session seventh and eighth, which seals the pair second row starting positions for the reversed-grid race two.

Campos Chevrolet driver Hugo Valente picks up pole for the second race, courtesy of tenth fastest time in Q2, where the Frenchman will head 2014 WTCC debutant Ma Qing Hua in the fourth of this year's dominant factory Citroens.

Fellow WTCC newcomer Nikita Misiulia is set to start from last in his TC2 Campos SEAT Leon.

Hungaroring winner Gianni Morbidelli suffered damage to his Munnich Chevrolet Cruze after running wide on the exit of the high-speed Turn 6.

The Italian sustained damage to his front splitter, which contributed to his qualifying position of 17th.

Pos  Driver                Team/Car           Time       Gap
 1.  Jose Maria Lopez      Citroen            1m38.651s          
 2.  Gabriele Tarquini     Honda              1m38.877s  +0.226s 
 3.  Tiago Monteiro        Honda              1m39.166s  +0.515s 
 4.  Sebastien Loeb        Citroen            1m39.580s  +0.929s 
 5.  Tom Chilton           ROAL Chevrolet     1m39.698s  +1.047s 
 6.  Yvan Muller           Citroen            1m39.575s  Q2      
 7.  Mehdi Bennani         Proteam Honda      1m39.715s  Q2      
 8.  Norbert Michelisz     Zengo Honda        1m40.001s  Q2      
 9.  Ma Qing Hua           Citroen            1m40.092s  Q2      
10.  Hugo Valente          Campos Chevrolet   1m40.312s  Q2      
11.  Rene Munnich          Munnich Chevrolet  1m40.368s  Q2      
12.  Dusan Borkovic        Campos Chevrolet   No time set        
13.  Tom Coronel           ROAL Chevrolet     1m40.327s  Q1      
14.  Robert Huff           Lada               1m40.639s  Q1      
15.  Mikhail Kozlovskiy    Lada               1m40.653s  Q1      
16.  James Thompson        Lada               1m40.655s  Q1      
17.  Gianni Morbidelli     Munnich Chevrolet  1m42.091s  Q1      
18.  Franz Engstler        Engstler BMW       1m44.011s  Q1      
19.  Pasquale Di Sabatino  Engstler BMW       1m44.229s  Q1      
20.  John Filippi          Campos SEAT        1m46.467s  Q1      
21.  Nikita Misiulia       Campos SEAT        1m46.498s  Q1      

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