José María López has hailed his qualifying lap around the Nürburgring Nordschleife as being an “amazing lap” on the limit, after the Citroën driver scored his third World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) pole of the season.
López beat Hugo Valente to the top time in a unique one-hour long qualifying session by 1.252 seconds, with the Argentinean never topped in the session as he continually improved on each of his three flying laps.
The reigning champion said that he arrived in qualifying in a confident mood, having topped the earlier dry second practice session.
“It’s very important for me to try to do a good qualifying here,” said López to TouringCars.Net. “I knew I was quite good in testing but at the end of the day what counts is qualifying. I have very good team-mates – they can see the data, although I can see their data as well – so they can also improve. You always have to push and do your best.
“I arrived in qualifying, and I felt pretty confident. I improved on each of my three laps. It was pretty amazing on the last lap to be on the limit, trying to do the best lap as I can.”
When asked whether he felt the pressure from a charging Valente, López stressed the importance of not pushing too hard around a circuit such as the Nordschleife.
“The thing is, you say I have to try to do my best, but sometimes pushing more also means to go slower because you make some mistakes, you over-drive. So you need to try to find the limit and together with a few changes we made I felt more comfortable.
“Maybe sector two was not great, as I found some dust on the track. But then finally I managed to improve the lap and do my best on the last outing, so it was pretty amazing. The feeling of that lap, with the pressure on knowing that everybody was trying to improve was a great experience.”
López also praised Valente for his second strong qualifying session in a row, with the Frenchman starting alongside him for the first of Saturday’s two races.
“We are not impressed anymore,” said López, emphasising how he sees Valente as a regular threat at the front now. “Hugo has been doing great and today was just confirming the form he has at the moment. I think he found the balance with his car and the confidence, and he has been very good since Argentina.
“For me, in the end it is good for everybody to have someone there fighting as well. We know we have a heavy car, we’re still there fighting at the top, but at least it means that the C-Elysée is still the fastest car.”