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Qualifying report

Slovakia WTCC: Muller, Valente take poles in thrilling qualifying

Yvan Muller took pole position with a stunning Q3 lap in a thrilling qualifying session at Slovakiaring ahead of Lada's Nicky Catsburg.

Yvan Muller, Citroën World Touring Car Team, Citroën C-Elysée WTCC

Yvan Muller, Citroën World Touring Car Team, Citroën C-Elysée WTCC

FIA WTCC

Yvan Muller, Citroën World Touring Car Team, Citroën C-Elysée WTCC
Yvan Muller, Citroën World Touring Car Team, Citroën C-Elysée WTCC
Hugo Valente, LADA Sport Rosneft, Lada Vesta
Yvan Muller, Citroën World Touring Car Team, Citroën C-Elysée WTCC
Tom Chilton, Sébastien Loeb Racing, Citroën C-Elysée WTCC
Tom Chilton, Sébastien Loeb Racing, Citroën C-Elysée WTCC and Mehdi Bennani, Sébastien Loeb Racing, Citroën C-Elysée WTCC
Thed Björk, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar TC1
James Thompson, All-Inkl Motorsport, Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1
John Filippi, Campos Racing, Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1
Thed Björk, Polestar Cyan Racing, Volvo S60 Polestar TC1

Citroen team-mate Jose Maria Lopez took third, two tenths off the pace. The double World Champion’s Q3 lap is however under investigation, which means the result is still sub-judice.

In Q1, Hugo Valente had set the fastest laptime in his Lada, despite having had an off earlier in the session which caused a red flag and a damaged splitter for the Frenchman.

Lopez also had a brief visit into the gravel trap leaving the track dirty, which was cleaned up during the red flag period. The Argentinian came second in the session ahead of Honda’s Norbert Michelisz

Mehdi Bennani put his Citroen C-Elysee in fourth ahead of Muller in Q1, with Thed Bjork in sixth in the Volvo.

Catsburg was seventh for Lada ahead of team-mate Gabriele Tarquini, with Tom Chilton’s Sebastien Loeb Racing Citroen in ninth ahead of Tiago Monteiro’s Honda.

At the end of the session John Filippi and Gregoire Demoustier both did not make it through the cut, with James Thompson also out in Q1 despite a strong pace in practice.

Tom Coronel and Ferenc Ficza also failed to make it to the following segment.

In Q2, things were much smoother, with Michelisz setting the fastest time ahead of Catsburg, Lopez, Muller and Huff.

Bjork narrowly missed the top five, with Monteiro’s Honda and Tarquini’s Lada behind him. Bennani will share the front row with opening race polesitter Valente.

The final segment was thrilling as Huff set a reference time which was very close to his Q2 performance.

Muller followed with a stunning lap which broke the 2m04 barrier by one tenth, with teammate Lopez not able to match the Frenchman.

Catsburg also did a very good lap, but missed pole position for four hundredths as Michelisz was not able to repeat his outstanding Q2 performance and ended up fourth, just ahead of Huff.

Pietro Casillo/TouringCarTimes

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