Macau Master Rob Huff claimed his fifth pole position on the notorious street circuit in qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship, beating Honda’s Norbert Michelisz to the top time on the Circuito da Guia.
Huff, who is an eight-time winner in Macau, claimed pole with a record lap, smashing the previous lap record which he also set in 2014 when racing for the factory LADA team.
The Brit’s Q3 effort was good enough to see him go three tenths clear of Michelisz, who had dominated the times early on in the weekend.
Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Tom Chilton, who had earlier been the pace-setter in a red-flag interrupted Q1, was third quickest, the only other driver o be within a second of Huff’s Q3 pace.
Thed Björk was the only Volvo driver to make it through to Q3 on his maiden Macau appearance, losing two points to title rival Michelisz by qualifying his Polestar S60 in fourth.
Fifth was the second factory Honda of Esteban Guerrieri, who despite being second quickest in Q2 was unable to hook together a consistently quick lap in the all-important Q3 shootout.
Q2 ultimately proved to be all about a single lap as well, in the end. After just under five minutes, with only four drivers on the timesheets, Polestar’s Néstor Girolami went into the barriers, followed immediately by Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani, who had nowhere to go with the Volvo blocking the circuit.
That ruled both drivers out of the session on the spot and caused a five-minute delay, and when the session then resumed, before anyone had put in another competitive time, SLR’s John Filippi went heavily into the barriers at the final corner, ripping the right-rear wheel off his Citroën and causing yet another stoppage.
That delay – the fifth of qualifying – effectively meant that Q2 became a single-lap shootout to get into Q3.
In the end, missing the cut was RC Motorsport’s Kevin Gleason in sixth – who nonetheless took his best-ever qualifying result –Honda’s Ryo Michigami in seventh, and ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel in eighth.
The reverse-grid pole position for the Opening Race therefore goes to Bennani, who was classified in tenth even though he failed to set a time.
Polestar’s Nicky Catsburg failed to even venture out on to the circuit in Q2, having earlier hit the wall at Fisherman’s bend and broken the steering on his Volvo.
Just missing out on the cut to get through to Q2 was RC Motorsport’s Yann Ehrlacher in 13th, despite the Frenchman putting in a succession of improvements in the final seconds of the session.
Similarly, Zsolt Szabó looked to improve on his final Q1 lap but the young Hungarian lost time in the middle sector when he came upon the RC Motorsport LADA of Mak Ka Lok running slowly, leaving the Zengő Motorsport driver in 14th, just ahead of team-mate Dániel Nagy in 15th.
Mak ended the session in 16th as the best of the one-off Asian entries for the event, and also the last of the drivers to post a time, some ten seconds off the pace.
Two drivers stopped on circuit in the session before posting a time – SLR’s Ma Qing Hua and Campos Racing’s Po Wah Wong, who will both have to start Saturday and Sunday’s races at the back of the grid.
The second Campos Chevrolet of Kin-Pong Clerebold Chan has withdrawn from the event due to the Hong Kong businessman feeling ill.
MAC3
Honda took an easy win in MAC3, after Volvo didn’t push due to the damage suffered to both Catsburg and Girolami’s cars in Q1 and Q2 respectively.
The Japanese marque therefore score a crucial four points in reducing the deficit to their Swedish rivals to 42.5 points ahead of the two races at the weekend.
The Opening Race is scheduled to take place at 14:15 CST (06:15 GMT, 07:15 CET) on Saturday, followed by the Main Race a day later at 10:45 CST (02:45 GMT, 03:45 CET) on Sunday.
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 | 2:23.995 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 3 | 2:24.301 | 0.306 | |
| 3 | 3 | T | Tom CHILTON | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 2:24.844 | 0.849 |
| 4 | 62 | Thed BJÖRK |  |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 3 | 2:25.146 | 1.151 | |
| 5 | 86 | T | Esteban GUERRIERI |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 3 | 2:25.240 | 1.245 |
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 | 3 | 2:24.373 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 86 | T | Esteban GUERRIERI | |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 2:24.721 | 0.348 |
| 3 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ | |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 3 | 2:24.971 | 0.598 | |
| 4 | 62 | Thed BJÖRK | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 3 | 2:25.135 | 0.762 | |
| 5 | 3 | T | Tom CHILTON | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 4 | 2:25.447 | 1.074 |
| 6 | 24 | T | Kevin GLEASON |  |
RC Motorsport | LADA Vesta WTCC | 4 | 2:28.059 | 3.686 |
| 7 | 34 | Ryo MICHIGAMI |  |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 3 | 2:28.929 | 4.556 | |
| 8 | 9 | T | Tom CORONEL |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 4 | 2:33.966 | 9.593 |
| 9 | 27 | T | John FILIPPI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 2 | No time | N/A |
| 10 | 25 | T | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 1 | No time | N/A |
| 11 | 61 | Néstor GIROLAMI | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 1 | No time | N/A | |
| 12 | 63 | Nicky CATSBURG | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 0 | No time | N/A |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 3 | T | Tom CHILTON | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 5 | 2:24.912 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 25 | T | Mehdi BENNANI | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 5 | 2:25.397 | 0.485 |
| 3 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ | |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 6 | 2:25.474 | 0.562 | |
| 4 | 12 | T | Rob HUFF | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 2:25.501 | 0.589 |
| 5 | 62 | Thed BJÖRK | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 7 | 2:26.155 | 1.243 | |
| 6 | 86 | T | Esteban GUERRIERI | |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 6 | 2:26.257 | 1.345 |
| 7 | 9 | T | Tom CORONEL | |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 5 | 2:26.653 | 1.741 |
| 8 | 61 | Néstor GIROLAMI | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 7 | 2:26.747 | 1.835 | |
| 9 | 27 | T | John FILIPPI | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 6 | 2:26.948 | 2.036 |
| 10 | 63 | Nicky CATSBURG | |
Polestar Cyan Racing | Volvo S60 Polestar | 3 | 2:27.408 | 2.496 | |
| 11 | 34 | Ryo MICHIGAMI | |
Honda Racing Team JAS | Honda Civic WTCC | 3 | 2:27.649 | 2.737 | |
| 12 | 24 | T | Kevin GLEASON | |
RC Motorsport | LADA Vesta WTCC | 8 | 2:27.837 | 2.925 |
| 13 | 68 | T | Yann EHRLACHER | |
RC Motorsport | LADA Vesta WTCC | 9 | 2:28.281 | 3.369 |
| 14 | 66 | T | Zsolt Dávid SZABÓ | |
Zengő Motorsport Kft | Honda Civic WTCC | 7 | 2:30.256 | 5.344 |
| 15 | 99 | T | Dániel NAGY | |
Zengő Motorsport Kft | Honda Civic WTCC | 6 | 2:31.628 | 6.716 |
| 16 | 4 | T | MAK Ka Lok |  |
RC Motorsport | LADA Vesta WTCC | 7 | 2:35.183 | 10.271 |
| 17 | 44 | T | Po Wah WONG |  |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 3 | No time | N/A |
| 18 | 30 | T | MA Qing Hua |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 1 | No time | N/A |
| 19 | 88 | T | Kin-Pong Clerebold CHAN | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | – | No time | N/A |