WTCC: Pole positions for Muller and van Lagen in Slovakia
Yvan Muller won the pole position for the World Touring Car Championship first race at Slovakia Ring, while Jaap van Lagen starts first in the second Sunday’s race. Citroen driver proved that he is in good form and we could expect interesting battles tomorrow.
Gregoire Demoustier missed the qualifying session. French driver of Craft Bamboo team had an accident during the second free practice and damaged his Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 which couldn’t be repaired for qualifying.
Jose Maria Lopez set the fastest lap time in Q1 – 2:04.066 which was 0.625 seconds better than Ma Qing Hua’s lap time. Norbert Michelisz, John Filippi, Tom Coronel, Stefano D’Aste, Tiago Monteiro and rookie Nestor Girolami failed to break through second round.
Citroen was fastest again in the Q2, but this time Yvan Muller set the best time – 2: 04.248, just 0.23 seconds faster the Jose Maria Lopez. Eliminated were Hugo Valente, Ma Qing Hua, Tom Chilton, Gabriele Tarquini, Jaap van Lagen, local crowd favorite and another rookie Mato Homola, and Mehdi Bennani, but van Lagen won the reverse pole position for the Sunday’s second race.
Jaap van Lagen during the WTCC race qualifying session at Slovakia Ring
Three Citroens and two Ladas went into the last round with bigger chances for French manufacturer to win first place as their C-Elysees looked better in the previous rounds. It was proved at the end with Yvan Muller winning pole position and five points in front of his team mates, reigning champion Lopez and another Frenchman Sebastien Loeb which were slower 0.266 and 0.847 seconds.
Lada Sport Rosneft drivers Rob Huff and Nick Catsburg were fourth and fifth and they must be happy with that as the Russian team’s progress is obviously continuing.
Start of the first WTCC race at Slovakia Ring is scheduled for Sunday 12.45 CET while the second run starts at 14.00 CET.
