Nurburgring WTCR: Bjork takes pole as Hyundai dominates

Bjork, the 2017 WTCC champion, set a fastest time of 8m58.700s in his YMR Hyundai to secure top spot by 0.079 seconds from Muller, handing the Swede his second pole of the season.

That compares to the fastest qualifying lap of 8m35.541s recorded during the WTCC's TC1 era by Citroen driver Jose Maria Lopez, although Bjork's effort was comfortably the fastest qualifying time set by a TCR car on the 15.77-mile circuit incorporating the grand prix loop.

Norbert Michelisz completed the top three in his BRC Racing Hyundai at the end of the session - although the Hungarian had set the session's fastest first sector on his second flying lap, only to abandon that run after going off in the second sector.

Esteban Guerrieri was the only other driver to get within a second of Bjork's time, hauling his Munnich Motorsport Honda up to fourth after the chequered flag had been shown.

Rob Huff secured fifth in his Sebastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen, setting the fastest fourth sector of all, while wildcard entrant Rene Rast was the leading Audi representative in sixth in his WRT-run Audi.

The fourth Hyundai of Gabriele Tarquini salvaged seventh, qualifying two seconds away from Bjork's time, ahead of WRT regular Gordon Shedden and the two Boutsen Ginion Hondas of Tom Coronel and Benjamin Lessennes.

James Thompson was 26th in his Munnich Motorsport Honda, and slowest of all in his first qualifying session on the Nordschleife.

The Briton will start Thursday's opening race ahead of Zengo Motorsport's David Szabo, who did not take part in qualifying after crashing in the wet in first practice.

Qualifying results:

Pos.	Drivers	Car	Time	Gap
1	Thed Bjork	Hyundai	8'58.700
2	Yvan Muller	Hyundai	8'58.779	0.079
3	Norbert Michelisz	Hyundai	8'59.065	0.365
4	Esteban Guerrieri	Honda	8'59.654	0.954
5	Rob Huff	Volkswagen	8'59.909	1.209
6	Rene Rast	Audi	9'00.471	1.771
7	Gabriele Tarquini	Hyundai	9'00.728	2.028
8	Gordon Shedden	Audi	9'01.235	2.535
9	Tom Coronel	Honda	9'02.153	3.453
10	Benjamin Lessennes	Honda	9'02.228	3.528
11	Yann Ehrlacher	Honda	9'02.689	3.989
12	Jean Karl Vernay	Audi	9'03.038	4.338
13	Pepe Oriola	Seat	9'04.103	5.403
14	Mat'o Homola	Peugeot	9'04.457	5.757
15	Frederic Vervisch	Audi	9'04.909	6.209
16	Denis Dupont	Audi	9'05.221	6.521
17	Aurelien Panis	Audi	9'05.732	7.032
18	Aurelien Comte	Peugeot	9'05.986	7.286
19	Mehdi Bennani	Volkswagen	9'06.192	7.492
20	Nathanael Berthon	Audi	9'06.319	7.619
21	Kris Richard	Honda	9'08.282	9.582
22	Fabrizio Giovanardi	Alfa Romeo	9'08.639	9.939
23	Gianni Morbidelli	Alfa Romeo	9'09.933	11.233
24	John Filippi	Seat	9'10.726	12.026
25	Norbert Nagy	Seat	9'10.821	12.121
26	James Thompson	Honda	9'13.428	14.728
27	Zsolt Szabo	Seat	no time