Yvan Muller at a loss to explain lack of pace in Q2 in Hungary

Citroën’s Yvan Muller escaped the first part in qualifying after a mistake on his flying lap late in the session, forced to go again on the same tyres and just made it through into Q2 in 12th position, but was just eighth fastest in the next part of qualifying, which gives him third on the grid for the reversed grid opening race.

The four-time champion was under threat from Lada’s Hugo Valente late in the first part of the session, but just turned it around to make the all-important top 12 and progress into Q2, but was far away from the top five needed to get into the pole position shootout.

“(In Q1) I was on the limit (on my lap),” said Muller to TouringCarTimes. “I didn’t have time to come back in for a new set of tyres, so I had to do my fast lap on my second lap. I was P12 so I was just enough, but then in Q2 I couldn’t find the set-up and had a lot of understeer.”

Muller said the move was not a strategic play for the reversed grid, stating: “The opening race pole was not of interest to me, I wanted pole position.”

Muller also was surprised at the pace of Honda, now running just 10kg lighter than Citroën this weekend.

“If you look at the time difference between José (María López) and the Honda there is quite a big gap, but they are better than we expected,” he said. “We’ll see in the race, for sure the simulation said it would be more of a gap, but at the same time this is maybe not the best track for us.”