José María López edged one step closer to taking the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) title by scoring his sixth pole position of the season in Thailand, ahead of team-mates Sébastien Loeb and Yvan Muller.
It was an all-Citroën Q3 in the end, the first time all five cars have been a C-Elysée, as Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Mehdi Bennani also made it through to the final session.
López’s final lap time in the shootout ended up being 0.269 seconds faster than Loeb, earning the Argentine an extra five points in his quest to claim a second successive title this weekend.
Muller, who is the only man who can stop López taking the title, had no answer to his team-mates pace, ending up 0.315 seconds slower, despite having been the leading works Citroën driver in Q2 when he was second behind Bennani.
Chinese driver Ma Qing Hua was fourth, ahead of Bennani in fifth, who had his lap time in Q3 disallowed for exceeding the track limits at turn eight.
The leading non-Citroën was thus outside Q3, with Campos Racing’s Hugo Valente putting his Chevrolet sixth quickest, having missed out on entry into Q3 by a mere 0.004 seconds.
LADA’s Nicky Catsburg was seventh, ahead of ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Chilton in eighth.
Tiago Monteiro was the leading Honda driver in ninth, ahead of Zengő Motorsport’s Norbert Michelisz in tenth, who took pole position for race two as a result, giving Honda the front row of the grid for race two.
LADA’s Rob Huff just missed out on the reverse grid for race two and qualified in 11th for both races, but the Brit was then excluded from the results post-qualifying for a technical infringement. The second Campos Cruze of John Filippi completed the Q2 times in 12th.
Amongst the surprise exits from Q1 were Honda’s Gabriele Tarquini, who was 13th, and LADA’s Nicolas Lapierre in 14th position, the latter over a second off the pace and three tenths off entry into Q2.
Local racer Tin Sritrai qualified the third Campos Chevrolet in 16th, 1.168 seconds off the pace of the leading Q1 time.
Technical problems prevented ROAL Motorsport’s Tom Coronel and Münnich Motorsport’s Stefano D’Aste from posting meaningful times, leaving the Chevrolet duo at the back of the grid for both races in 17th and 18th positions respectively.
Top ten times
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 37 | José María LÓPEZ |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:37.916 | ||
| 2 | 9 | Sébastien LOEB |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:38.185 | 0.269 | |
| 3 | 68 | Yvan MULLER | |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:38.231 | 0.315 | |
| 4 | 33 | MA Qing Hua |  |
Citroën Total WTCC | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | 1:38.333 | 0.417 | |
| 5 | 25 | Y | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Citroën C-Elysée WTCC | 3 | Disallowed | N/A |
| The following times are from Q2 | |||||||||
| 6 | 7 | Y | Hugo VALENTE | |
Campos Racing | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 5 | 1:38.224 | 0.058 |
| 7 | 10 | Nick CATSBURG |  |
LADA Sport Rosneft | LADA Vesta WTCC | 5 | 1:38.399 | 0.233 | |
| 8 | 3 | Y | Tom CHILTON |  |
ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet RML Cruze TC1 | 5 | 1:38.533 | 0.367 |
| 9 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 1:38.551 | 0.385 | |
| 10 | 5 | Y | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | Honda Civic WTCC | 5 | 1:38.642 | 0.476 |