José María López obliterates lap record on way to Nürburgring pole position

Two-time WTCC champion José María López claimed pole position for the fifth round of the 2016 World Touring Car Championship at the Nürburgring Nordschleife with a time of 8:35.541, over 3.5 seconds clear over his Citroën team-mate Yvan Muller.

López managed to set three laps during the 60-minute session, each time emerging as the fastest of the group, and saved his best to last as the Argentinian produced a lap two seconds faster than his own record from 2015 in the Citroën C-Elysée WTCC.

A slew of improvements came on the final run, with ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel reproducing his impressive form from recent events, with the Dutchman qualifying his ROAL Motorsport Chevrolet Cruze third and the best of the independent drivers and also the best-placed of the four drivers in the field which are also taking part in the Nürburgring 24 Hours this weekend.

Norbert Michelisz was the top Honda driver in fourth, albeit five seconds from López’s pace, while Tom Chilton was the fastest of the Sébastien Loeb Racing-run Citroëns in fifth position.

Nicky Catsburg, also competing in the 24 Hours this weekend qualified in sixth, though the Lada driver’s second lap run was disrupted by a crash at Antoniusbuche for team-mate Hugo Valente with an apparent mechanical failure. The Frenchman would qualify down in 13th, and with heavy damage to his car, this means the Russian marque will be forced to miss the MAC3 time trial event after qualifying.

Thed Björk put in a late improvement to qualify seventh in his Volvo S60, just ahead of Rob Huff, who will start from the back of the grid for the opening race due to an engine change penalty.

For the opening race, Tiago Monteiro will start from pole position in his Honda Civic courtesy of the top ten reversed grid, with the Citroën of Mehdi Bennani alongside him

The opening race starts at 11:20 CET on Saturday, with López taking up pole position for the main race at 12:45 CET.