Thed Björk excluded from qualifying giving Hugo Valente pole

Polestar Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk has been excluded from the results of qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship in France, handing pole position for the opening race to LADA’s Hugo Valente.

Björk was excluded from the sixth position he earned in Q2 for failing the post-qualifying ride height check.

The stewards decision means that everyone below him will move up one place on the grid, handing Valente pole after the Frenchman had originally qualified in 11^th position.

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BJörk will be forced to start from the back of the grid for both races.

Zengő Motorsport’s Ferenc Ficza was also excluded from qualifying, after the Hungarian failed to follow the weighing procedure during qualifying and failed to stop at the red light in the pitlane.

Honda’s Rob Huff had originally been due to start on pole with Björk’s team-mate Fredrik Ekblom alongside. It will now be Valente on pole with Huff alongside.

The opening WTCC race takes place at 11:15 BST (12:15 CEST) on Sunday.

Revised top ten times

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	37		José María LÓPEZ		Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	3	1:28.950
2	18		Tiago MONTEIRO		Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda Civic WTCC	3	1:29.213	0.263
3	68		Yvan MULLER		Citroën Total WTCC	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	3	1:29.262	0.312
4	9	Y	Tom CORONEL		ROAL Motorsport	Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1	2	No time	N/A
5	10		Nicky CATSBURG		LADA Sport Rosneft	LADA Vesta WTCC	0	No time	N/A
The following times are from Q2
6	5		Norbert MICHELISZ		Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda Civic WTCC	5	1:29.958	0.695
7	25	Y	Mehdi BENNANI		Sébastien Loeb Racing	Citroën C-Elysée WTCC	5	1:30.021	0.758
8	61		Fredrik EKBLOM		Polestar Cyan Racing	Volvo S60 WTCC	3	1:30.221	0.958
9	12		Rob HUFF		Honda Racing Team JAS	Honda Civic WTCC	3	1:30.576	1.313
10	7		Hugo VALENTE		LADA Sport Rosneft	LADA Vesta WTCC	5	1:30.612	1.349