Termas de Río Hondo: Lopez on pole for home WTCC round

Lopez claims WTCC pole at home

By Franck Drui

2 August 2014 - 21:22
Termas de Río Hondo: Lopez on pole (...)

José María López didn’t miss the opportunity to shine in front of his family, friends and fans and signed his fourth pole of the season in an extremely warm (32°) afternoon in Termas de Río Hondo.

The Argentine was fastest in Q2 and Q3, eventually taking the pole in 1:43.766, beating his team mates Yvan Muller and Sébastien Loeb, who both did some small mistakes in their decisive attempts, by over four tenths of a second.

Behind the Citroën trio, the Honda cars showed good form although they could have hoped in better results after free practices. The fastest among the Japanese cars was Norbert Michelisz’s despite the Hungarian having missed the testing session on Friday because of an adventurous plane travel from Europe.

Tiago Monteiro was fifth, with Gabriele Tarquini and Mehdi Bennani in the top eight as well. Tom Chilton was the fastest Chevrolet RML driver, while Rob Huff, who made it to Q2 with the LADA Granta, will start from the pole in Race 2 by virtue of his tenth fastest time in Q2.
Franz Engstler repeated himself in the TC2 category, taking yet another class pole.

Q1 - Qualifying started with hot weather and Norbert Michelisz putting fastest time in the initial stages, with a time of 1:45.139, preceding López, Chilton, Loeb and Münnich. After a handful of minutes, Bennani posted the second-fastest lap, putting two Honda cars on top, whilst the works Civic cars of Monteiro and Tarquini were still lying in the last positions, having both aborted attempts. Things went back to normal in the second half of the Q1, when Muller (1:44.962) and López (1:44.795) took control, with Monteiro (3rd) and Tarquini (5th) finally among the top five. But Michelisz put everybody behind with a last lap of 1:44.696.

The following drivers advanced to Q2: Michelisz, López, Muller, Monteiro, Tarquini, Bennani, Chilton, Münnich, Coronel, Huff and Valente. Camilo Echevarría’s car was again plagued by misfiring problems and was able to complete only one lap.

Q2 - López dominated from the beginning (1.44.128) ahead of Muller, Michelisz, Bennani and Monteiro, before breaking the 1:43. threshold with a time of 1:43.813 on his second attempt that left Loeb 315 thousandths behind and Muller a further 70 thousandths adrift. Michelisz kept fourth place for most part of the session, with the fifth place switching from Bennani to Monteiro in the dying moments.

Chilton and Tarquini missed the cut just like Bennani, Valente and Huff; the latter winning pole for Race 2.

Q3 - The decisive part of the session had an orderly development, with the top five going on track and finishing almost in perfect reverse order. Monteiro set a time of 1:45.174, being disappointed by a slight mistake done in Turn 9. Michelisz took fourth with a lap of 1:44.408, and Muller was eventually second with a time of 1:44.194 after a lap he described as ‘too cautious’. Loeb who took the track as fourth lost a little bit over one tenth from Muller, after two small mistakes. López took the track as the last one and put in a faultless lap to take pole in 1:43.766.

Pos. Driver Car Q1 time Q2 time Q3 time
1 José Maria LOPEZ Citroen C-Elysee WTCC 1:44.795 1:43.813 1:43.766
2 Yvan MULLER Citroen C-Elysee WTCC 1:44.962 1:44.194 1:44.194
3 Sébastien LOEB Citroen C-Elysee WTCC 1:45.216 1:44.128 1:44.310
4 Norbert MICHELISZ Honda Civic WTCC 1:44.737 1:44.474 1:44.408
5 Tiago MONTEIRO Honda Civic WTCC 1:45.126 1:44.763 1:45.174
---------- -------- -------- -------- ---------
6 Tom CHILTON Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 1:45.208 1:44.821
7 Gabriele TARQUINI Honda Civic WTCC 1:45.150 1:45.263
8 Mehdi BENNANI Honda Civic WTCC 1:45.203 1:45.389
9 Hugo VALENTE Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 1:45.843 1:45.542
10 Rob HUFF LADA Granta 1.6T 1:45.739 1:45.572
11 Tom CORONEL Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 1:45.610 1:45.696
12 René MUNNICH Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 1:45.348 1:45.830
---------- -------- -------- -------- ---------
13 James THOMPSON LADA Granta 1.6T 1:45.964
14 Dusan BORKOVIC Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 1:46.037
15 Gianni MORBIDELLI Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 1:46.068
16 Mikhail KOZLOVSKIY LADA Granta 1.6T 1:46.622
17 Franz ENGSTLER BMW E90 320 TC 1:50.499
18 John FILIPPI Seat Leon WTCC 1:51.722
19 Camilo ECHEVARRIA BMW E90 320 TC 1:55.658

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