José María López on a roll with record equalling fifth consecutive pole

Citroën Racing’s José María López matched Yvan Muller’s World Touring Car Championship record of five consecutive pole positions in qualifying for tomorrow’s race at the Circuit Moulay El Hassan at Marrakech, but admits he’s concerned about the second race where he starts tenth, while championship rival Yvan Muller starts from pole position in the sister Citroën C-Elysée WTCC.

The Argentinian has topped every session so far this weekend, at the scene of his first WTCC pole position last season, where he also won the first race of the year on his way to the 2014 drivers’ title.

“You need to find a compromise (on set-up) as you need to be quick on the straight, and this year I think it’s a bit more difficult here than last year,” said López. “It was a good feeling. I did a very good lap in Q2, which was better than my Q3 lap, and then I saw the laps of (Mehdi) Bennani and Ma (Qing Hua) in Q3 and I thought I just have to do the same, and not make any mistakes.”

Looking ahead to the second race where he starts from tenth on the grid, López admitted it’s going to be a struggle at the tight Marrakech street circuit to work his way forward, even though last year he was able to go from tenth on the grid to finish second by the end of the race.

“I think it’s going to be very difficult as it’s not very easy to overtake, but we’ll go step-by-step, and try to do a good first race. If things go well in the first race, it gives you more confidence for the second one.

“I’ll try to do a good start and win the race, or achieve good points and still lead the championship, then we’ll have a difficult second race as there are a lot of good drivers in front of me. Yvan also played his cards today and will start P1 in the second race, so I think it’ll be very difficult to catch him, and also Ma, Bennani, they’ll all be in front of me.”