Vila Real WTCC: Monteiro takes home race pole

The three factory Hondas and the two Citroens had worked their way through to the top five in the second part of qualifying, with the two manufacturers having been neck-and-neck throughout practice so far this weekend.

It was a close call for championship leader Jose Maria Lopez to even make Q3 after he just escaped disaster in the second part of qualifying.

The Argentinian had slammed sideways into the barrier on his first flying lap and was forced to pit for repairs.

By the time Citroen had fixed his car, there were just five minutes left on the clock. The Argentinian made a mistake and cut the chicane in the final sector on his first run, with his lap immediately deleted, forcing him to go for a second lap on the same tyres.

Lopez's lap was good enough for third, and served to drop Polestar Cyan Racing’s Robert Dahlgren out of the top ten, who had looked set to start from pole for the reversed grid opening race on his WTCC return, but instead it went to ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel.

Monteiro was fifth fastest and was therefore up first in the shootout, with the Portuguese driver setting a competitive time of 1m56.633s which set a tough target for his rivals.

Monteiro’s Honda team-mate Norbert Michelisz was up next, but the Hungarian made contact at the barrier at Turn 9, ruling himself out from pole, but continued on and set a time 1.7 seconds slower than his team-mate.

Lopez's turn was next, and the Argentinian was on target to decimate Monteiro’s pole time as he was four-tenths inside at the second sector, but a mistake at the roundabout saw the championship leader throw his Citroen into a slide and had to abort the corner up the escape road, failing to set a time and relegating him to fifth.

Yvan Muller was next for Citroen, but a lock up in the final sector saw him also miss out on pole by just a tenth of a second.

Street circuit master Rob Huff was last to go, but the Brit made a mistake in the first sector at Turn 4, setting a time over two seconds off the pace and qualified down in fourth position.

Polestar Cyan Racing’s Thed Bjork just missed the top five and qualified in sixth for Volvo, while Sebastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani qualified in seventh, the best-placed independent driver for Sebastien Loeb Racing in the Citroen C-Elysee WTCC.

Bennani’s team-mate Tom Chilton was eighth fastest, while Nicky Catsburg was the fastest of the Ladas in ninth ahead of Tom Coronel, with the two Dutch drivers securing the front row for the reversed top ten opening race on Sunday.

Neil Hudson / TouringCarTimes