Norbert Michelisz

José María López has taken pole position on home ground at FIA WTCC Race of Argentina, although his debutant compatriot Esteban Guerrieri actually achieved a faster lap.

Guerrieri carried his pace-setting form from free practice into the first phase of qualifying, before López beat him to top Q2. In the Q3 single-lap shootout for the DHL-presented pole position, Guerrieri set a lap time of 1m42.857s, 0.388 seconds faster than the previous benchmark set by Norbert Michelisz. However, he soon had his time disallowed for not respecting the pit exit lights on his way out to the track.

With this in mind, Citroën driver López knew that it was Michelisz’s time that he had to beat, and he was able to do this by 0.201 seconds to secure pole.

Honda’s Michelisz, who got through to Q3 with the fifth-best time, claimed a place on the front row of the grid, with Tom Coronel a fine third and the highest-placed WTCC Trophy driver in his Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1. Yvan Muller was forced to settle for fourth for Citroën, with Guerrieri set to start fifth on the grid for the Main Race.

The best of those eliminated in Q2, Rob Huff will start sixth ahead of Mehdi Bennani, Tiago Monteiro, Tom Chilton and John Filippi. James Thompson and Gregoire Demoustier made it through to Q2 at the expense of LADA drivers Hugo Valente, Nicky Catsburg and Gabriele Tarquini, all knocked out in Q1 together with Polestar Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk and Robert Dahlgren and Zengő Motorsport’s Daniel Nagy.

Source: FIA WTCC