Jean-Karl Vernay scored pole position for the opening World Touring Car Cup on the streets of Wuhan, as five of the top six cars were Audis split only by the CUPRA of Pepe Oriola, who was second quickest.
Vernay bounced back from the disappointment of not picking up any points in the last round at Ningbo to emerge as the driver to beat in Saturday’s first WTCR qualifying session, with the Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil driver hitting the top of the times after 22 minutes with his effort of 1 minute 22.846 seconds.
Vernay’s time would then stand as the benchmark for the rest of the session, which had two brief red-flag stoppages in the final ten minutes.
The final red flag pause came just three minutes from the end, and when the activity resumed Campos Racing’s Oriola was one of the few drivers to improve, catapulting the Spaniard from tenth up to second in the dying seconds, a mere 0.044 seconds from Vernay’s time.
Comtoyou Racing duo Nathanaël Berthon and Denis Dupont were third and fourth respectively, ahead of the second WRT RS3 of Gordon Shedden in fifth, with the three-time BTCC champion enjoying one of his strongest qualifying sessions of the year so far.
Frédéric Vervisch was sixth fastest, completing the Audi domination at the front in his Comtoyou Racing entry, with 12th-placed Aurélien Panis the only Audi driver not to make it into the top ten.
Yann Ehrlacher was the best of the Honda drivers in seventh in his Münnich Motorsport Civic, ahead of an impressive effort by Team Mulsanne’s Kevin Ceccon in eighth.
DG Sport Compétition duo Aurélien Comte and Mat’o Homola completed the top ten, the latter after making a very last-minute improvement from 14th.
Most of the title contenders failed to qualify strongly, with Münnich Motorsport’s Esteban Guerrieri one of the best of the top drivers in 11th, behind team-mate Ehrlacher.
None of the Hyundais were in the top half of the field, with YMR’s Thed Björk the best of the i30 N drivers down in 17th position, eight tenths off the pace and directly ahead of team-mate Yvan Muller.
Series leader Gabriele Tarquini was just 21st, whilst his BRC Racing team-mate Norbert Michelisz was 24th and will have to start race one from the back of the grid after an overnight engine change.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 16:00 local time (09:00 BST, 10:00 CEST).
Qualifying result
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY |  |
Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS | 16 | 1:22.846 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Team Oscaro by Campos Racing | CUPRA TCR | 19 | 1:22.890 | 0.044 |
| 3 | 23 | Nathanaël BERTHON | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | 11 | 1:22.909 | 0.063 |
| 4 | 20 | Denis DUPONT |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | 13 | 1:22.959 | 0.113 |
| 5 | 52 | Gordon SHEDDEN |  |
Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS | 12 | 1:22.989 | 0.143 |
| 6 | 22 | Frédéric VERVISCH | |
Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS | 14 | 1:23.004 | 0.158 |
| 7 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 18 | 1:23.186 | 0.340 |
| 8 | 31 | Kevin CECCON |  |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 11 | 1:23.201 | 0.355 |
| 9 | 7 | Aurélien COMTE | |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 19 | 1:23.250 | 0.404 |
| 10 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 19 | 1:23.256 | 0.410 |
| 11 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 15 | 1:23.322 | 0.476 |
| 12 | 21 | Aurélien PANIS | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | 15 | 1:23.359 | 0.513 |
| 13 | 66 | Zsolt Dávid SZABÓ |  |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 18 | 1:23.368 | 0.522 |
| 14 | 12 | Rob HUFF | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 16 | 1:23.506 | 0.660 |
| 15 | 55 | MA Qing Hua |  |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 17 | 1:23.545 | 0.699 |
| 16 | 25 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 17 | 1:23.651 | 0.805 |
| 17 | 11 | Thed BJÖRK |  |
YMR | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 17 | 1:23.655 | 0.809 |
| 18 | 48 | Yvan MULLER | |
YMR | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 15 | 1:23.669 | 0.823 |
| 19 | 42 | Timo SCHEIDER |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 16 | 1:23.771 | 0.925 |
| 20 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Team Oscaro by Campos Racing | CUPRA TCR | 18 | 1:23.777 | 0.931 |
| 21 | 30 | Gabriele TARQUINI | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 17 | 1:23.858 | 1.012 |
| 22 | 9 | Tom CORONEL |  |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 15 | 1:23.859 | 1.013 |
| 23 | 8 | Norbert NAGY | |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 14 | 1:23.882 | 1.036 |
| 24 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 15 | 1:24.672 | 1.826 |
| 25 | 88 | Fabrizio GIOVANARDI | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 16 | 1:24.860 | 2.014 |