Lopez beats Bennani to pole in Morocco

In the first part of qualifying, the Citroens set the early pace with Lopez leading the way in the early stages. They were briefly deposed by three of the Chevrolets, with the two ROAL Motorsport cars of Tom Chilton and Tom Coronel working together to use the slipstream effect to ensure they both made it the second part of qualifying.

Then Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente was able to pull out a time on his own, which was quicker than both of his Chevrolet rivals to hold P1 for a short while.

The Citroens all surged forward on the next run however, with Yvan Muller going quickest ahead of Lopez and Sebastien Loeb with a few minutes left in the 30-minute qualifying segment.

With the top 12 going through to the second part of qualifying, attention was now on the middle of the pack, as Gabriele Tarquini was out of position.

The Italian managed to go fifth fastest in his Honda and dropped Ma Qing Hua out of the top 12, but the Chinese driver responded by going fastest overall in his Sebastien Loeb Racing-run car, which then dropped Lada’s Rob Huff to 13th.

The Briton made an error on his final opportunity to break back into the top 12, and so had to settle for 13th, where he’ll start race two, whilst he goes to the back of the grid for race one due to an engine change penalty.

Penalties play role in Q2

In Q2, things became more strategic as with the number of penalties in play with five engine changes and with a five-place grid penalty overhanging Muller, there were more drivers manoeuvring for tenth spot, as it was a foregone conclusion that one of the other Citroens would be on pole.

A late run from Ma Qing Hua saw him improve from 12th to second, which dropped Honda’s Tiago Monteiro to P11, which would mean the Portuguese driver would miss the all-important top 10 reversed grid for race two.

This forced Monteiro to push hard on his final run, and with the Honda driver scrambling to improve, the other drivers near the back of the top 10 felt the need to improve their times as well.

Hugo Valente jumped up to second in his Chevrolet and Chilton rose to fifth, while Monteiro made it into the top 10 with the seventh fastest time, dropping his Honda team-mate Tarquini to 11th.

Yvan Muller finished the session in 10th position and so will start the second race from pole position with the reversed top 10.

Although the Frenchman will take a five place grid penalty for race one, he will still start race one no lower than 12th due to the five engine change penalties for James Thompson, Huff, Valente, Gregoire Demoustier and Tom Chilton, with Campos’ John Filippi also serving the same five position penalty starting behind him.  

Top-five shootout

The top five drivers went into the one-lap shootout, but Tom Chilton opted to sit out his run claiming concerns for the gearbox of his Chevrolet Cruze, which meant Mehdi Benanni was the first to set the target lap of 1m44.109.

Ma Qing Hua was next up but couldn’t improve on Bennani's time, while Valente, who was set to start from the back of the grid anyway due to an engine change, ran off at the first corner and into the tyre barriers, causing a red flag.

After a small delay to extract Valente's car and rearrange the barriers, Lopez took to the track and set a time of 1m43.854 to secure his fifth consecutive pole in the WTCC, dating back to Shanghai last October.

Bennani will start second on the grid in front of his home crowd, with Ma Qing Hua third.

Although Valente and Chilton qualified fourth and fifth, the two drivers engine upgrades this weekend mean they’ll move to the back, with Norbert Michelisz and Monteiro promoted to fourth and fifth for Honda, with Loeb sixth and Coronel eighth.

Tarquini will therefore start race one ninth with Stefano D’Aste completing the top ten for Munnich Motorsport following Muller’s five-place grid penalty.

Qualifying Results:

Neil Hudson, TouringCarTimes