Yvan Muller scored his first outright pole position of the season in qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship at the Hungaroring, despite the Frenchman admitting to not being fast enough in sector three.
Muller claimed his first outright pole position for Citroën, excluding the previous event in France where the reigning champion inherited pole from his team-mates. The 44-year-old is pleased to have opened his account, especially as he felt that he was not quick enough in the final sector of the lap.
“I am pleased to open my score of pole positions this year,” said Muller. “It’s a tough lap here in Hungary. It’s always complicated to do a quick lap here because the track is long and has a lot of corners.
“My third sector was not fast enough – but [it was] fast enough to be on pole position so of course I am very pleased. I made a good gap after sector one and sector two to José [María López] and Séb [Loeb]. My last sector was the equal of Séb but much slower than José and in the end there was a very, very small gap between us.”
Muller is wary of the threat of the Honda’s from behind, with Gabriele Tarquini having been fastest of all in Q2. But the Frenchman also expressed his surprise that the JAS Motorsport-run cars weren’t able to take the fight to the three Citroëns a little more.
“After the lap time they [Honda] did in Q2 I thought it would be tough to beat them, because they were very fast,” admitted Muller. “To be honest I’m a bit surprised with the lap time they did in Q3 because it’s even slower than Q2, so I don’t know what happened. But they should start with new tyres. In Q2 they were fast so they will be with us and they will fight with us probably.”
Muller added that the effect of the additional 60 kg of compensation weight which only the Citroën cars will carry this weekend is not known for sure.
“There is a simulation, which says [the weight is worth] eight tenths, but that is only a simulation,” added Muller. “To see how much it is exactly we have to check it. But unfortunately we didn’t get the possibility to try it.”
Citroën Racing boss Yves Matton praised his three drivers for making up for the effect of the compensation weight on their cars.
“From the beginning of the weekend, we realised that the compensation weight had made it a whole new ball game,” said Matton. “Q2 was particularly closely-fought, right up to the last second, when Tarquini grabbed the best time. Our drivers were the difference in Q3, particularly Yvan and José, who used their experience to push their cars to the limit during their laps.”