Münnich Motorsport’s Rob Huff took his first outright WTCC pole position since Macau 2012, leading a Citröen 1-2 ahead of Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Medhi Bennani at the Hungaroring this afternoon.
The Briton’s C-Elysée TC1 was 0.327 seconds quicker than Bennani in the final one-lap shoot out over the 4.381-km circuit, whilst Campos Racing’s Esteban Guerreri being the fastest of the Argentinian contingent in third, ahead of countryman Néstor Girolami, who was fifth.
This was despite the 80 kilo compensation weight handed to both the factory Volvo and Honda outfits, with the latter appearing to struggle in comparison.
Holland’s Nicky Catsburg would end up going out first in Q3, but the Polestar Cyan Racing driver will start fourth on the Main Race on Sunday, whilst Thed Björk was only able to muster eighth fastest in Q2.
Local hero Norbert Michelisz starts from sixth ahead of Tom Chilton, with championship leader Tiago Monteiro ninth fastest.
John Filippi’s Citröen will start tenth on Sunday in the main race, but the Frenchman’s Citröen will start on pole position for the opening race, with Monteiro alongside.
Following the incident with Michelisz at Monza, Bennani will start from 14th on the grid for the opening race, serving a five-place grid penalty handed to him by race officials.
ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel was one of the biggest casualties of Q1 down in 13th, as he was unhappy with the severe understeer his car had been suffering with all day.
The Dutchman was joined in the drop zone by the Zengo Motorsport pairing of Aurélien Panis and Daniel Nagy, along with RC Motorsport’s Kevin Gleason.
France’s Yann Erlacher was the best of the Lada pairing in 11th place after Q2, as the youngster was running as high as seventh in the first part of qualifying, whilst Japan’s Ryo Michigami completed the top twelve.
In MAC3, Honda took a dominant win by 3.807 seconds ahead of Polestar Cyan Racing, as the trio of JAS Motorsport Honda Civics were literally nose-to-tail during their two-lap effort.
Michigami led the way, with both Monteiro and Michelisz in close proximity, whilst the trio of Björk, Catsburg and Girolami found themselves further spread out.
The gap has now closed between the two manufacturers to just eight points, but Volvo still lead the standings in the MAC3 title standings on 206 points.
Rob Huff now moves up into fourth in the overall standings following his impressive efforts in qualifying, having taken the maximum five points from the one-lap Q3 shootout.
Race one gets underway at 12:35 local time (BST + 1 hour) tomorrow afternoon.
Q3 results
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 12 | T | Rob HUFF |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:48.264 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 25 | T | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:48.591 | 0.327 |
| 3 | 86 | T | Esteban GUERRIERI |  |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 3 | 1:48.896 | 0.632 |
| 4 | 63 | Nicky CATSBURG |  |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 3 | 1:48.941 | 0.677 | |
| 5 | 61 | Néstor GIROLAMI | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 3 | 1:49.674 | 1.410 |
Q2 results
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 12 | T | Rob HUFF | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 5 | 1:48.494 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 86 | T | Esteban GUERRIERI | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 5 | 1:48.619 | 0.125 |
| 3 | 25 | T | Mehdi BENNANI | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 5 | 1:48.685 | 0.191 |
| 4 | 61 | Néstor GIROLAMI | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 5 | 1:48.755 | 0.261 | |
| 5 | 63 | Nicky CATSBURG | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 5 | 1:48.822 | 0.328 | |
| 6 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 1:48.970 | 0.476 | |
| 7 | 3 | T | Tom CHILTON | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 5 | 1:48.997 | 0.503 |
| 8 | 62 | Thed BJÖRK |  |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 5 | 1:49.103 | 0.609 | |
| 9 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 1:49.148 | 0.654 | |
| 10 | 27 | T | John FILIPPI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 5 | 1:49.608 | 1.114 |
| 11 | 68 | T | Yann EHRLACHER | |
RC Motorsport | LADA Vesta WTCC | 5 | 1:49.772 | 1.278 |
| 12 | 34 | Ryo MICHIGAMI |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 1:50.012 | 1.518 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 63 | Nicky CATSBURG | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 8 | 1:48.995 | 0.000 | |
| 2 | 12 | T | Rob HUFF | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 7 | 1:48.998 | 0.003 |
| 3 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO | |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 3 | 1:49.071 | 0.076 | |
| 4 | 61 | Néstor GIROLAMI | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 8 | 1:49.111 | 0.116 | |
| 5 | 86 | T | Esteban GUERRIERI | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 6 | 1:49.231 | 0.236 |
| 6 | 62 | Thed BJÖRK | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 6 | 1:49.429 | 0.434 | |
| 7 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ | |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 6 | 1:49.442 | 0.447 | |
| 8 | 68 | T | Yann EHRLACHER | |
RC Motorsport | LADA Vesta WTCC | 8 | 1:49.698 | 0.703 |
| 9 | 27 | T | John FILIPPI | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 9 | 1:49.704 | 0.709 |
| 10 | 25 | T | Mehdi BENNANI | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 9 | 1:49.839 | 0.844 |
| 11 | 3 | T | Tom CHILTON | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 7 | 1:49.861 | 0.866 |
| 12 | 34 | Ryo MICHIGAMI | |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 7 | 1:50.446 | 1.451 | |
| 13 | 9 | T | Tom CORONEL | |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 8 | 1:50.502 | 1.507 |
| 14 | 8 | T | Aurélien PANIS | |
Zengő Motorsport Kft | Honda Civic WTCC | 8 | 1:51.029 | 2.034 |
| 15 | 24 | T | Kevin GLEASON |  |
RC Motorsport | LADA Vesta WTCC | 7 | 1:51.372 | 2.377 |
| 16 | 99 | T | Dániel NAGY | |
Zengő Motorsport Kft | Honda Civic WTCC | 7 | 1:52.457 | 3.462 |