Shanghai WTCC: Jose Maria Lopez takes fifth pole of 2014
World Touring Car Championship leader Jose Maria Lopez achieved his fifth pole position of the season at Shanghai
The Argentinean's lap of 1m48.782 denied his increasingly impressive Chinese team-mate Ma Qing Hua a maiden pole position in front of his home fans.
"I didn't improve very much from Q1 to Q2, so I decided to make a small change on the car," explained Lopez.
"When my engineer told me Ma's provisional pole time I knew it would be complicated to beat him, as he really knows this circuit, and I needed to find 0.6s.
"I had never done that time this weekend. The change helped, but it was also a clean lap and I pushed hard."
Lopez enjoys a 68-point advantage in the drivers' standings over Yvan Muller, who will start Sunday morning's opening race from third.
Reigning WTCC champion Muller was fastest in Q2, and the final runner in the Q3 single-lap shootout segment. The Alsace racer appeared to lose ground to his rivals in the first sector and was unable to recover the time over the remainder of the lap.
Zengo Motorsport's consistent performer Norbert Michelisz ended the afternoon as the leading Honda runner in fourth.
Sebastien Loeb had been on course to beat the Hungarian's Q3 time, but on the final left-hand kink onto the pit straight clipped an apex marker bollard and sustained minor damage to his C-Elysee.
Qualifying in Shanghai was the first occasion four Citroens have progressed into Q3 this year, and the Versailles-based team requires just two points from this weekend's meeting to seal the manufacturers' title.
The factory JAS Hondas of Tiago Monteiro and Gabriele Tarquini will line up sixth and seventh for race one, ahead of Beijing Goldenport winner Tom Chilton.
The second ROAL Chevrolet of Tom Coronel was tenth in the closing minutes of Q2, and on course to achieve the race two reversed-grid pole, when the Dutchman was called in by officials to be weighed.
There was insufficient time for Coronel to exit the pits afterwards before the Q2 chequered flag, and the veteran was left with a nervous wait to discover if he would be bumped.
Coronel was out of luck. The four Hondas circulated closely to assist Mehdi Bennani's last lap chances, and the Proteam driver demoted Coronel from the coveted position by 0.020s.
Pos | Class | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | TC1 | Jose Maria Lopez | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1m48.782s | - |
2 | TC1 | Ma Qinghua | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1m48.898s | 0.116s |
3 | TC1 | Yvan Muller | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1m49.424s | 0.642s |
4 | TC1 | Norbert Michelisz | Zengo Motorsport | Honda | 1m49.681s | 0.899s |
5 | TC1 | Sebastien Loeb | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1m49.830s | 1.048s |
6 | TC1 | Tiago Monteiro | Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda | 1m50.178s | 1.396s |
7 | TC1 | Gabriele Tarquini | Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda | 1m50.229s | 1.447s |
8 | TC1 | Tom Chilton | ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1m50.351s | 1.569s |
9 | TC1 | Hugo Valente | Campos Racing | Chevrolet | 1m50.406s | 1.624s |
10 | TC1 | Mehdi Bennani | Proteam Racing | Honda | 1m50.528s | 1.746s |
11 | TC1 | Tom Coronel | ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1m50.548s | 1.766s |
12 | TC1 | Dusan Borkovic | NIS Petrol by Campos Racing | Chevrolet | 1m51.665s | 2.883s |
13 | TC1 | Gianni Morbidelli | All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1m51.655s | - |
14 | TC1 | James Thompson | LADA Sport Lukoil | Lada | 1m51.662s | - |
15 | TC1 | Rob Huff | LADA Sport Lukoil | Lada | 1m51.781s | - |
16 | TC1 | Mikhail Kozlovskiy | LADA Sport Lukoil | Lada | 1m51.953s | - |
17 | TC1 | Rene Munnich | All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1m52.393s | - |
18 | TC2 | Franz Engstler | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW | 1m55.315s | - |
19 | TC2 | John Filippi | Campos Racing | SEAT | 1m56.753s | - |
20 | TC2 | William Lok | Campos Racing | SEAT | 1m58.664s | - |
21 | TC2 | Filipe Souza | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW | 1m58.719s | - |
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