Yvan Muller believes Citroën will be fighting Honda on race day

Four-time champion Yvan Muller took his first pole position of the season on merit at the Hungaroring, a circuit where he has always started from pole, but isn’t complacent ahead of race day, where he believes the Citroën team could well be fighting manufacturer rivals Honda for the podium positions.

After two races where the Citroën Total WTCC have effectively dominated, with 1-2 finishes in every race including sterling drives from José María López and Sébastien Loeb through the field from the final row in France, four-time champion Yvan Muller believes that Honda are close enough, thanks in part to the compensation weight reduction, to challenge them after a strong showing from the Japanese marque in qualifying.

“After the lap time they did in Q2, I thought it could be tough to beat them,” said Muller. “And I’m actually a bit surprised of the lap times they did in Q3, I guess they made a mistake or something, but that means in the race they will be with us and they will probably fight with us.”

With the Hondas (as well as Chevrolet and Lada) running 60kg lighter this weekend, the gap, which has been approximately 1.6 seconds per lap for the first two races, has come down considerably, more than the difference that the ballast change should have provided.

“There is a simulation which says (the ballast is worth) eight tenths, but that is only a simulation. To see how accurate that is we need to check it, but unfortunately we haven’t had the time to try,” said Muller.

“For sure it’s not eight tenths. From our experience, it’s perhaps four or five tenths,” disputed JAS Motorsport team principal Alessandro Mariano. “But nobody from Honda or Chevrolet have tested with and without ballast as we haven’t had the time,” added Gabriele Tarquini, confirming Muller’s point that the assumption has not been tested.

After splitting their strategy in Le Castellet, with Tarquini targeting the best possible grid position in race one and Tiago Monteiro aiming for the best spot on the reversed top ten grid for race two, the Portuguese driver admits that was not the strategy for this weekend, with both factory Hondas qualifying fourth and fifth in Hungary.

“We wanted to show and see our real potential compared to Citroën,” said Monteiro to TouringCarTimes. “And to be honest there was a real possibility to fight for pole position. OK, we’re not in the ideal position for a podium, but we usually do good starts, and it’s a decent straight until the first corner, many things can happen, and we’ll try to give a good show.”