WTCC: Loeb wins pole position in France

Sebastien Loeb won the pole position for the WTCC race at Paul Ricard circuit in front of his compatriot and fellow Citroen driver Yvan Muller.

The home crowd favourites beat their team mate Jose Maria Lopez in the final qualifying round. Loeb claimed pole position with 1:29.245 lap time, leaving Muller second with a gap of 0.125 seconds, while the Argentinian ace was third with a gap of 0.133 seconds.

Domination of Citroen was confirmed with Ma Qing Hua’s fourth place, while among the others, the best was undoubtedly ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Chilton.

citroen-garage

Rob Huff was in good form in the last few WTCC races, but he had to retire from the rest of qualifications after he damaged his Lada Vesta in the sixth lap during the first round. Apart from the former champion, others who were out of Q2 included Tom Coronel, Stefano D’Aste, Rickard Rydell, John Filippi and Gabriele Tarquini who was the fastest in Friday’s test.

The best result during the Q1 was achieved by Ma Qing Hua (1:29.589) in front of his Citroen team mates Yvan Muller (+0.034) and Sebastien Loeb (+0.079), while Tom Chilton in Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 was fourth.

chilton-france

In the second qualifying round, the best lap result was achieved by Jose Maria Lopez – 1:29.490. The Reigning champion of Citroen was 0.019 faster than Sebastien Loeb, while for Tom Chilton was third with a gap of 0.061 seconds. Yvan Muller was fourth and Ma Qing Hua fifth in the list of contenders for the pole position.

Mehdi Bennani won the reverse pole for the Sunday’s second race as he finished tenth. Along with the Moroccan driver the others out of Q3 included  Nicky Catsburg, Gregoire Demoustier, Jaap van Lagen, Norbert Michelisz, Tiago Monteiro and Hugo Valente.

Check the full results of FIA WTCC weekend at Paul Ricard circuit at SnapLap results page!

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