Citroën’s José María López stormed to a sensation pole position on home soil in qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship in Argentina, beating team-mate Yvan Muller by 0.428 seconds.
López was only slightly quicker than title rival Muller after sectors one and two, but a mammoth final sector saw the Argentine driver take pole position by more than four tenths of a second.
“You need to go for it – I have two team-mates that really push – it’s not easy,” said López, who scored his fourth pole of the season. “When I did the last lap in Q3 I wasn’t sure I would be on pole.”
Muller will start alongside his team-mate for the first of Sunday’s races, with Sébastien Loeb completing a Citroën 1-2-3 on the grid in third.
Norbert Michelisz was the top Honda driver in fourth .The Zengő Motorsport driver out-qualified works Honda driver Tiago Monteiro, who was 1.408 seconds off the pace in fifth after making a mistake on his single Q3 lap.
ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Chilton was the top Chevrolet driver in sixth, unable to challenge for a spot in Q3 despite having been the top non-Citroën driver in second free practice earlier.
Seventh was Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini, who only completed one flying lap in Q2 and missed out on progression to the final part of qualifying by half a second. The Italian will have independent Proteam Racing Honda driver Mehdi Bennani alongside him in eighth.
Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente and LADA’s Rob Huff completed the top ten respectively, with the latter securing his first reverse-grid pole position of the season for race two.
Tom Coronel and René Münnich were 11th and 12th respectively, with the Chevrolet drivers seemingly struggling around the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo circuit.
LADA’s James Thompson only just missed out on progressing from Q1, with the Brit bumped out in the final seconds by team-mate Huff. He will start both of Sunday’s races from 13th on the grid, ahead of Campos Racing’s Dušan Borković, Münnich Motorsport’s Gianni Morbidelli and fellow LADA driver Mikhail Kozlovskiy.
Franz Engstler again took pole position in the TC2 class ahead of John Filippi, with the second Engstler BMW driven by local Camilo Echevarría struggling to third in class.
Round 15 takes place at 18:15 BST on Sunday (19:15 CEST; 14:15 ART).
Top ten times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 37 | TC1 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:43.766 | |
| 2 | 1 | TC1 | Yvan MULLER |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:44.194 | 0.428 |
| 3 | 9 | TC1 | Sébastien LOEB | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:44.310 | 0.544 |
| 4 | 5 | TC1 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 3 | 1:44.408 | 0.642 |
| 5 | 18 | TC1 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 3 | 1:45.174 | 1.408 |
| The below times are from Q2: | |||||||||
| 6 | 3 | TC1 | Tom CHILTON |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 6 | 1:44.821 | 1.008 |
| 7 | 2 | TC1 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 1:45.263 | 1.450 |
| 8 | 25 | TC1 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Proteam Racing | Honda Civic WTCC | 6 | 1:45.389 | 1.576 |
| 9 | 7 | TC1 | Hugo VALENTE | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 3 | 1:45.542 | 1.729 |
| 10 | 12 | TC1 | Rob HUFF | |
LADA Sport Lukoil | LADA Granta 1.6T | 3 | 1:45.572 | 1.759 |