Rob Huff takes pole position in chaotic Macau qualifying

Rob Huff took his sixth career pole position in Macau. The Brit will share the front row of the main race with championship contender Norbert Michelisz, with Tom Chilton behind them in the Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën.

The session was dramatic as there were four red flag interruptions in the first segment of qualifying, with Ma Qing Hua the most notable victim of the iconic Circuito da Guia. Nicky Catsburg also crashed, stopping his Polestar Cyan Racing S60 just outside the pit lane. Although he had set a lap time that was enough to put him through to Q2, he was unable to compete in the following session as he had received assistance to get back to the pits.

In Q2 drama started very soon as Néstor Girolami crashed at Police. Mehdi Bennani was right behind him and couldn’t avoid a crash which put them both out of the session and triggered a red flag. The same happened when John Filippi lost control of his SLR Citroën and hit the barriers.

That left four drivers unable to set a proper lap time in Q2. As a result, the outlaps were considered to make the grid, and Mehdi Bennani was classified tenth, which puts him on pole position for tomorrow’s opening race.

In Q3 a very good effort from Michelisz was not enough to stop Macau specialist Rob Huff from taking his fifth WTCC pole position in the former Portuguese colony. Tom Chilton was fourth ahead of championship leader Thed Björk, with Esteban Guerrieri completing the top five.

Kevin Gleason was a career-best sixth in the RC Motorsport Lada, ahead of Honda’s Ryo Michigami and ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel. John Filippi will share the front row with team-mate Mehdi Bennani in the opening race, while Volvo drivers Girolami and Catsburg will start from 11th and 12th respectively after their qualifying accidents.