Citroën’s Yvan Muller scored his second pole position of the season in qualifying for the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) at the Moscow Raceway, ahead of team-mate José María López and Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini.
Muller was just 0.046 seconds faster than points leader López in the all-important Q3 session, despite having been slower than the Argentine in the preceding Q2 segment.
Honda’s Tarquini was third quickest, marking the Italian’s best qualifying result of the season to-date.
LADA’s Rob Huff was fourth, 0.716 seconds off pole position, ahead of ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Chilton in fifth, meaning that all four manufacturer’s on the WTCC grid had representation in Q3.
Sixth quickest, and just missing out on entry into Q3, was Citroën’s Ma Qing Hua, despite the Chinese driver opting to only do one run in Q2 in order to save his tyres. The 2014 race winner was baulked by the Zengő Motorsport Honda of Norbert Michelisz only his only flying lap, limiting his progress.
Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente was seventh quickest, ending the Frenchman’s run of getting into Q3, where he had featured for the past three events. Michelisz put his Honda in eighth on the grid, 0.829 seconds off the Q2 pace.
Ninth and tenth, and thus on the front row of the grid for race two, were LADA’s Nicky Catsburg and Honda’s Tiago Monteiro, who took pole position for the reverse-grid race.
Citroën’s Sébastien Loeb just missed out on the cut in Q2 and will thus start both of Sunday’s races from 11th on the grid – the first time that the former rally driver has qualified outside the top ten.
LADA’s Jaap van Lagen also missed out on the pole for race two, with the Dutchman posting the 12th fastest time in Q2, just over a second off the pace.
Independent Citroën driver Mehdi Bennani was 13th, ahead of ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel in 14th, with the Dutchman struggling for pace throughout the weekend so far.
Nika International’s Rickard Rydell could only manage 17th, and the second from last spot on the grid, as the Swede returns to racing after his recent bout of illness.
Top ten times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 68 | Yvan MULLER |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:37.923 | ||
| 2 | 37 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:37.969 | 0.046 | |
| 3 | 2 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 3 | 1:38.091 | 0.168 | |
| 4 | 12 | Rob HUFF |  |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 3 | 1:38.639 | 0.716 | |
| 5 | 3 | Y | Tom CHILTON | |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 3 | 1:39.139 | 1.216 |
| The following times are from Q2 | |||||||||
| 6 | 33 | MA Qing Hua |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:38.836 | 0.747 | |
| 7 | 7 | Y | Hugo VALENTE | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 5 | 1:38.873 | 0.784 |
| 8 | 5 | Y | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 1:38.918 | 0.829 |
| 9 | 10 | Nick CATSBURG |  |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 3 | 1:39.047 | 0.958 | |
| 10 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 1:39.071 | 0.982 | |