RML’s Yvan Muller was delighted with his performance in qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship at the Hungaroring, declaring his pole position record lap as his “best lap of the year”.
Muller’s time of 1:53.426 was an incredible 1.1 seconds faster than the pole position time from 2012, despite RML having done little work to their Cruze’s over the winter and conditions being similar. Indeed Muller was so fast that he was 0.380 seconds clear of the next driver, Norbert Michelisz.
“That was probably my best lap of the year,” admitted Muller. “I had to do my best to beat the Hondas – taking the maximum out of the car but also keeping it clean. Everybody in the team has, and always does, work so hard for this, so this is definitely a great start to the weekend!”
Muller’s British team-mate Tom Chilton was not quite as jubilant following the session, feeling that he could have extracted more pace from the car. Chilton qualified in sixth, 0.755 seconds slower than his team-mate.
“I’m disappointed to be honest, because the pace is there and I thought we were good enough to be up on the front with Yvan,” said Chilton, 28. “I was P2 on my quick lap but then Monteiro just edged ahead, demoting me to P3. But I was happy with my time because it was an improvement over my morning pace. Unfortunately the Hondas and Coronel then went back out for a second lap, when we didn’t, so they managed to punch ahead.
“I’m out of position against where I think we should be, but, on the plus side I am happy that I have new tyres for both races which I hope will play out favourably for me against my neighbours on the grid.”
Muller and Chilton will start from tenth and fifth respectively for the reversed-grid second race on Sunday.