José María López beat Ma Qing Hua to pole position in qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) in China, after dominating all three qualifying sessions.
López was on fine form in the delayed session, which was put back to Sunday to enable barrier repairs, as the reigning champion topped all three parts of qualifying.
Fastest by 0.248 seconds in Q1, López then saw off local racer Ma by a greater margin in Q2 before denying his team-mate a first-ever pole by 0.114 seconds in Q3.
That left Ma to settle for second, a fraction ahead of an impressive performance by LADA’s Nicky Catsburg in third, with the Dutchman making his second-ever appearance in Q3, following Slovakia earlier in the season.
All four works Citroëns made it through to the final part of qualifying, with Sébastien Loeb edging out Yvan Muller for fourth.
The second LADA of Rob Huff narrowly missed out on making it through to Q3, qualifying in sixth with a lap time half a tenth slower than Muller’s in Q2.
For the first time this season Campos Racing’s John Filippi was the leading Chevrolet driver in seventh, marking the young Frenchman’s first time in Q2.
“It’s amazing because I remember three years ago I played on my PlayStation Formula One on this track,” said a delighted Filippi. “I did a very good job today and the team too. We worked a lot yesterday and at the end we saw this morning it’s very good. For sure we did the best lap we could but it was a surprise for me.”
Gabriele Tarquini was the leading Honda driver in eighth after a difficult session saw just one of the Civics make it into Q2, with team-mate Tiago Monteiro languishing down in 16th position.
ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel and Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente completed the top ten in their Chevrolets, with the latter earning his second consecutive reverse-grid pole position as a result.
Missing out on the reverse grid in Q2 were Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani in 11th and LADA’s Nicolas Lapierre in 12th.
Amongst the other high-profile names to not make it beyond Q1 were the second ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet of Tom Chilton in 13th, and Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz in 15th, who both seemed to lack pace in qualifying despite showing form in second practice.
Nika Racing’s Rickard Rydell did not participate in the session following a last-minute decision by the team to skip the event.
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 | 1:49.447 | ||
| 2 | 33 | MA Qing Hua |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:49.561 | 0.114 | |
| 3 | 10 | Nick CATSBURG |  |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 3 | 1:49.619 | 0.172 | |
| 4 | 9 | Sébastien LOEB |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:49.665 | 0.218 | |
| 5 | 68 | Yvan MULLER | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:50.108 | 0.661 | |
| The following times are from Q2 | |||||||||
| 6 | 12 | Rob HUFF |  |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 5 | 1:50.061 | 0.651 | |
| 7 | 27 | Y | John FILIPPI | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 3 | 1:50.201 | 0.791 |
| 8 | 2 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 3 | 1:50.330 | 0.920 | |
| 9 | 4 | Y | Tom CORONEL | |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 3 | 1:50.361 | 0.951 |
| 10 | 7 | Y | Hugo VALENTE | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 3 | 1:50.604 | 1.194 |