RML’s Yvan Muller was once again on dominant form in qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship in Macau, beating Honda’s Tiago Monteiro by exactly one second.
Click here for the full qualifying results.
In a session which was delayed by more than an hour and featured no fewer than three red flag stoppages, Muller was on impeccable form as he flew to his 22nd pole in the WTCC and first around Macau, setting a new qualifying lap record in the process with a lap of 2:28.933.
No other driver could get within a second of Muller, with Monteiro the closest 1.000 seconds adrift. He was followed by Honda team-mate Gabriele Tarquini in third, despite the Italian having a brush with the barriers on his first effort in Q2.
Macau expert Rob Huff was fourth fastest for Münnich Motorsport, finishing qualifying as the top Brit in a session which saw all six British drivers in Q2 for the first time this season.
Norbert Michelisz was fifth fastest in his Zengő Motorsport Honda, ahead of a trio of Chevrolet drivers. Alex MacDowall qualified in sixth as the top Yokohama Trophy driver ahead of RML’s Tom Chilton and bamboo-engineering’s James Nash in eighth.
LADA’s James Thompson qualified ninth and will therefore start race two on the front row of the grid. ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel was tenth fastest and takes pole for the reverse-grid second race.
Marc Basseng made his first Q2 appearance since the USA races and qualified in 11th, demoting Special Tuning Racing’s Tom Boardman to 12th. It was Boardman’s first ever appearance in Q2 in the WTCC as the Brit showed good pace on the back of a strong showing in Shanghai last time out.
Pepe Oriola was the top driver to miss out on Q2, qualifying his Tuenti Racing Chevrolet in 13th despite topping the second free practice session just before qualifying.
Proteam Racing’s Mehdi Bennani headed up a quartet of BMW drivers in 14th, beating PB Racing’s Stefano D’Aste, Wiechers-Sport’s Fredy Barth and ROAL’s Darryl O’Young respectively. Barth, however, was the cause of the third red-flag in Q1, suffering extensive damage to his car after he hit the barriers at the Solitude Esses.
Also causing stoppages in Q1 were Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente, who qualified in 18th, and Michael Soong, who qualified in 28th. Valente also hit the barriers at Faraway Hill, whilst Soong went off into the barriers at Fishermans’ Bend.
WTCC débutant Konstantins Calko qualified in 19th and the Latvian was the only driver from Campos not to crash during the session.
Macanese racer Henro Ho Wai Kun was the top driver in the EuroSport Asia Trophy, qualifying his Engstler-run BMW in 24th ahead of China Dragon Racing’s Filipe Clemente de Souza and Nika Racing’s Yukinori Taniguchi.
Round 23 takes place at 03:05 GMT (04:05 CET) on Sunday 17 November, with the final round of the season following at 04:20 GMT (05:20 CET).