Lopez grabs pole position at Paul Ricard!

Jose Maria Lopez was the fastest in qualifying for the opening round of the WTCC at Circuit Paul Ricard. Argentinian ace won the pole position for the race 2 while in the race 1 from pole position will start Rob Huff.

Bad day for Sebastien Loeb Racing

Reigning champion Lopez was fastest in Q1 while Nick Catsburg and Yvan Muller were close to the Argentinian. It was a disappointing session for Sebastien Loeb Racing team after new drivers Gregoire Demoustier and Tom Chilton were eliminated, together with Rene Munnich, Ferenc Ficza, and John Filippi.

Tiago Monteiro in Honda

Volvo is looking good

Yvan Muller was fastest in Q2, beating his teammate Pechito Lopez. Surprisingly, Tom Coronel qualified for the last round just as Catsburg and Tiago Monteiro. Rob Huff won the reverse pole position for the race 1 and he will be partnered in the front row with Fredrik Ekblom. Volvo did a good job in their debut as both cars passed into the Q2 and Thed Bjork almost qualified for the last round.

Thed Bjork, Volvo

Lopez is still the fastest

Catsburg was forced to miss Q3 after his team made a mistake. Next one out on the track went Coronel who suffered a brake problem, so he qualified fourth for the main race on Sunday. Tiago Monteiro in Honda easily beat Coronel’s time to take a lead, but he had to wait and see what will do Citroen’s duo. Lopez then beat Monteiro’s time by 0.24s and stayed on the top after Muller disappointed in his fast lap and finished only third.

Mehdi Bennani

Citroen wins MAC3

For the first time, ‘Manufacturers Against Time’ or MAC3 session was held and Citroen scored maximum 10 points. Lada surprisingly was ahead of Honda and won eight points while Japanese manufacturer got six points for the Manufacturers’ championship.

 Check the full results at SnapLap results page!

Photo: fiawtcc.com