José María López: “This was my first true pole position”

Citroën Total WTCC’s José María López is revelling in his success at the Slovakiaring track, a circuit where he has never been to before, after topping every session and claiming his second pole position of the season, and extends his points lead over Yvan Muller by two points as a result.

The 31-year-old Argentinian claimed pole position with a perfect lap in the one-lap shootout, the first driver to break the 2:04 barrier with a time of 2:03.912, 6.4 seconds faster in the new generation car than Gabriele Tarquini’s pole position lap from last season.

“I just arrived here, and I think even since the simulator I think this circuit really suits my driving style. From the first lap yesterday I felt really good,” he said.

“When you finish in P1 in every session, you don’t really try to do too much with the car, but the difficult thing is I have Yvan (Muller) and Seb (Loeb) behind me and they keep improving and improving and I thought maybe they would beat me.

“I’d say this was my first true pole position in the WTCC, as in Marrakech I profited from some mistakes. I really tried my best, the car was great, so I congratulate Citroën Racing and all those who’ve worked really hard on the car, which makes things much easier for us. (But) tomorrow is another day, it may rain, so I’ll enjoy this at the moment and think about tomorrow later.”