José María López took pole position for the World Touring Car Championship in Argentina, with the Citroën driver only getting the place after debutante Esteban Guerrieri had his time disallowed for not respecting the pit exit lights.
Campos Racing’s Guerrieri had dominated the day’s proceedings prior to qualifying, topping both of the morning’s free practice sessions.
But the Argentine failed to respect the red light at the pit exit on his single Q3 run, and had his time disallowed as a result, despite it being two tenths faster than López.
That gave second on the grid to Honda’s Norbert Michelisz, who was two tenths behind López, with the Hungarian having featured in the top five throughout qualifying.
ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel will line up in third for Sunday’s main race, proving that the Chevrolet has pace in Termas de Río Hondo.
The second works Citroën of Yvan Muller was fourth, with the Frenchman making a mistake in the final sector of the lap, prior to which he had been on course for second on the grid.
Guerrieri will line up in fifth for the Main Race after his deleted laptime was taken into account.
Honda’s Rob Huff was the first driver to miss out on entry into Q3, with the Brit being sixth fastest, ahead of the leading independent Citroën of Mehdi Bennani in seventh and the works Honda of Tiago Monteiro in eighth.
Completing the top ten, and taking the front row for the Opening Race, were Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Tom Chilton and the second Campos Racing Chevrolet of John Filippi, who scores his first reverse-grid pole since the 2015 season finale in Qatar.
A flurry of late improvements in Q2 dropped Münnich Motorsport’s James Thompson and Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Grégoire Demoustier down the order, leaving them to start both races from 11th and 12th respectively.
Surprisingly none of the LADAs made it through to Q3, with Hugo Valente being the best of the trio in 13th, whilst Nicky Catsburg was 14th after a tail-happy display in his Vesta. Gabriele Tarquini was 15th, having suffered from engine problems throughout the day.
Neither of the Polestar Cyan Racing Volvos showed much pace, with 16th-placed Thed Björk being over two seconds of the pace, ahead of team-mate Robert Dahlgren.
Zengő Motorsport youngster Dániel Nagy completed the times in 18th as he continues to learn both track and car in only his second WTCC meeting.
MAC3
Honda scored their fifth MAC3 victory of the season with a time of 3:32.872 over the two laps, with Huff being the pace-setting driver.
Citroën had looked set to go faster on their run, but nominated driver Chilton was unable to keep the pace up over both laps, and was visibly holding up pace-setting driver Muller at the end, leaving the marque 0.677 seconds behind.
LADA continued to struggle for pace, ending up in third some 3.308 seconds slower than Honda.
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 | 1:43.044 | ||
| 2 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 3 | 1:43.245 | 0.201 | |
| 3 | 9 | Tom CORONEL |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 3 | 1:43.284 | 0.240 | |
| 4 | 68 | Yvan MULLER |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:43.474 | 0.430 | |
| 5 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 3 | 1:42.857 | 0.000 | |
| The following times are from Q2 | |||||||||
| 6 | 12 | Rob HUFF |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 1:43.470 | 0.459 | |
| 7 | 25 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 5 | 1:43.537 | 0.526 | |
| 8 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 1:43.540 | 0.529 | |
| 9 | 3 | Tom CHILTON | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:43.861 | 0.850 | |
| 10 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 5 | 1:43.896 | 0.885 | |
| 11 | 15 | James THOMPSON | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 5 | 1:43.944 | 0.933 | |
| 12 | 11 | Grégoire DEMOUSTIER | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:44.431 | 1.420 | |
| The following times are from Q3 | |||||||||
| 13 | 7 | Hugo VALENTE | |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 8 | 1:44.250 | 1.257 | |
| 14 | 10 | Nicky CATSBURG | |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 9 | 1:44.336 | 1.343 | |
| 15 | 2 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 5 | 1:45.202 | 2.209 | |
| 16 | 62 | Thed BJÖRK |  |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 WTCC | 8 | 1:45.247 | 2.254 | |
| 17 | 63 | Robert DAHLGREN | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 WTCC | 7 | 1:45.361 | 2.368 | |
| 18 | 99 | Dániel NAGY | |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 9 | 1:46.036 | 3.043 | |