Citroën’s José María López needs to secure just one fourth-placed finish in Sunday’s World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) races to secure the drivers’ championship – a feat made even easier after he secured pole position on Saturday.
López now leads team-mate Yvan Muller by a huge 94 points, having gained an extra point over the Frenchman by beating him to pole by just 0.075 seconds on Saturday.
The Argentine admits that it was not an easy pole to take, with Muller having had the upper hand throughout the prior free practice sessions and qualifying segments Q1 and Q2.
“It’s fantastic for Citroën to have achieved another treble in qualifying,” said López, after Muller and Sébastien Loeb qualified in second and third. “It shows just how competitive our C-Elysée WTCC is.
“This pole position was hard-won. I thought that I would do a little better in Q1 and Q2. But just like in Spa, my teammates gave me some work to do. We made a few changes to the setup for Q3, but I made a few little mistakes in the first sector. I gained in confidence from corner to corner and it was in the third sector that I really made the difference.
“I’m one step closer to the title, but I’m going to continue to approach the weekend as normally as I can. There is still some uncertainty about tomorrow, particularly as far as the weather goes: it could rain.”
Despite being pipped to pole at the last minute, Muller says that he is pleased to be second on the grid – having almost equalled his time in Q2. Nevertheless, the Frenchman is hoping to be able to get the upper hand on his championship-leading team-mate in Sunday’s races.
“I’m really happy with my second place,” said Muller. “I was worried after free practice on Friday, as the car wasn’t working as I would have liked. Thanks to some hard work with my team, we managed to turn things round.
“In Q3, I tried to attack a little more on bend 15, the fastest on the circuit. It didn’t work and I ended up with exactly the same time as in Q2, give or take 2 thousandths of a second!
“The races are likely to be very competitive: we’ve got the same cars, we work together, and we know each other’s setups. I hope that we will be able to give Citroën a clean sweep, hopefully not in the same order as today, though!”
Loeb, on the other hand, believes he could have gone even faster in Q3 and taken pole position but for a problem with his brakes. The Frenchman ended the session just 0.151 seconds slower than López.
“I made it into Q3 by the skin of my teeth,” explained Loeb. “I tried to get into Tiago Monteiro’s slipstream in Q2, but Mehdi Bennani managed to dart in between us before making a mistake. In trying to avoid him, I crashed off and wrecked my tyres. So I had to go to the pits and get them changed.
“My Q3 lap was pretty good, until my brakes failed at the last chicane. In qualifying, the slightest error can cost you dear, and the tenth of a second I lost probably cost me pole position.”