Qualifying report
WTCC
Sébastien Loeb leads Citroën 1-2-3 in qualifying
Sébastien Loeb and Citroën Racing backed up their dominating performance in Marrakech last week by taking the first three spots on the grid for race one this weekend.
Edited: Apr 19, 2014, 5:43 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Sébastien Loeb continued to impress in his first WTCC season. After scoring his maiden victory in Marrakech last week, he won his first pole position today at Le Castellet.
On the track he knows better among those that host the championship, Loeb improved in each part of the qualifying session. Second behind Yvan Muller in Q1 (one tenth slower) and Q2 (with a gap of 0.07 seconds) the former rally ace clocked the fastest lap in Q3, beating José María López by 0.09 and Muller by 0.33.
One of the first persons to congratulate Loeb was His Serene Highness the Prince Albert of Monaco who was visiting the WTCC paddock invited by Daniel Elena, Loeb’s former co-driver.
Behind the Citroën trio, Honda and Chevrolet cars fought for the other positions. Eventually Gabriele Tarquini pipped Hugo Valente to secure fourth position, while Norbert Michelisz and Tom Chilton were the first two drivers who remained out of Q3.
Tiago Monteiro qualified in tenth, which will give him pole position on the reverse grid for tomorrow’s second race. John Filippi provided the icing on the cake for the French fans, posting the fastest lap in the TC2T class.
Qualifying 1 Just like in Marrakech, it took only one lap to the Citroën trio to secure their places in Q2: Yvan Muller (1:30.269), Sébastien Loeb (1:30.369) and José María López (1:30.782) posted the three fastest laps. Eventually Hugo Valente managed to climb to third with a last lap of 1:30.644, demoting López to fourth. Tom Chilton (1:30.932) and Gianni Morbidelli (1:31.042) posted the fifth and sixth fastest laps respectively, ahead of the Honda Civic cars of Norbert Michelisz (1:31.110) and Gabriele Tarquini (1:31.198). John Filippi’s SEAT took pole position in the TC2T class, while Franz Engstler spoiled his odds by spinning at Turn 6. All three LADA cars were eliminated after Q1: Rob Huff’s was placed in 13th position, while James Thompson’s and Mikhail Kozlovskiy’s were both stopped by suspension failures. The following drivers went through to Q2: Muller, Loeb, Valente, López, Chilton, Morbidelli, Michelisz, Tarquini, Münnich, Bennani, Borković, and Monteiro.
Qualifying 2 Citroën drivers pushed hard to raise the crossbar and broke the 1:30 barrier: Muller (1:29.566), Loeb (1:29.638) and López (1:29.655) were classified in the order on top of the time sheet.
Once again Valente emerged as the best of the rest in fourth position, while Tarquini won the last sport for Q3 ousting Michelisz with a last lap of 1:30.451 that was faster than the Hungarian’s by 0.010 seconds.
Tiago Monteiro qualified in tenth and won pole position on the reversed grid for Race 2; Mehdi Bennani will take the start alongside him on the front row.
Qualifying 3 Loeb won pole position with a perfect lap of 1:29.527 that helped him to beat López’s 1:29.619 and Muller’s 1:29.857. Tarquini was able to post the fastest laps of 1:30.808, though he remained 1.3 seconds off the pace, while Valente clocked a 1:31.139 that left him in fifth.
FIA WTCC
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Rookie driver Esteban Ocon secures maiden Formula 3 race win
Next article Chandhok qualifies in 3rd position in first ever European Le Mans race
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jose Maria Lopez
Lopez named as Toyota Hypercar reserve for WEC's Le Mans 24 Hours
WEC
WEC
24 Hours of Le Mans
Lopez named as Toyota Hypercar reserve for WEC's Le Mans 24 Hours
Lopez's Toyota return at Le Mans "like I had never left"
WEC
WEC
24 Hours of Le Mans test day
Lopez's Toyota return at Le Mans "like I had never left"
Why Toyota chose Lopez over Miyata to replace Conway at Le Mans
WEC
WEC
Why Toyota chose Lopez over Miyata to replace Conway at Le Mans
More from
Citroën World Rally Team
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
WRC
WRC
Rally Monte Carlo
Citroen reveals new-look 2025 WRC line-up
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
WRC
WRC
Ostberg gets full WRC2 season with Citroen
Citroen open to making WRC car available to privateers
WRC
WRC
Citroen open to making WRC car available to privateers
Latest news
Spy shots of 2027 NASCAR Ford Mustang testing at Charlotte, but what's different?
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Charlotte II
1 h
Spy shots of 2027 NASCAR Ford Mustang testing at Charlotte, but what's different?
Five key takeaways from F1's big African Grand Prix reveal in Rwanda
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 2 h
Five key takeaways from F1's big African Grand Prix reveal in Rwanda
Niels Koolen makes switch to Abel Motorsports ahead of 2027 Indy NXT campaign
Indy NXT
IndL Indy NXT 4 h
Niels Koolen makes switch to Abel Motorsports ahead of 2027 Indy NXT campaign
GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 4 h
GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe