Yvan Muller took back-to-back pole positions in the second qualifying session for the FIA World Touring Car Cup in Ningbo, China, as he headed Lynk & Co team-mate and nephew Yann Ehrlacher on Sunday.
Team Mulsanne’s Ma Qing Hua had been the quickest driver of all in Q1, being the only driver to lap in the 1 minute 49 seconds. But the Chinese driver was eliminated in an incident in Q2 when Néstor Girolami joined the circuit and blocked the Alfa Romeo driver before the duo made contact.
Ma was out with no lap time, whilst the session was red-flagged with just 30 seconds to go. That, in turn, denied several drivers the chance to improve, leaving Aurélien Panis, Nicky Catsburg, Girolami, Muller and Ehrlacher to go through to Q3.
From there, Muller was able to beat his Cyan Racing team-mate to pole by just under three tenths of a second, whilst Girolami was third fastest but the incident with Ma is under investigation.
Comtoyou Racing’s Panis put his CUPRA in fourth, whilst the BRC Racing Hyundai of Nicky Catsburg was fifth, the Dutchman being six tenths of a second away from Muller’s time in Q3.
The second Münnich Motorsport Honda of series leader Esteban Guerrieri was sixth, just missing out on Q3, ahead of reigning champion Gabriele Tarquini in seventh.
Tarquini had only just scraped into Q2 when Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch had his best Q1 lap time removed for a track limits infringement in Q1, giving the Italian a chance to improve in Q2.
BRC Racing’s Augusto Farfus was eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by the Lynk & Co of Thed Björk and the Hyundai of Norbert Michelisz.
For the reversed-grid second race, that gives Michelisz pole position ahead of Björk, who made it three Cyan Racing cars in the top ten.
Andy Priaulx was 11th, whilst Ma was 12th after the earlier incident with Girolami.
PWR Racing’s Daniel Haglöf was the second-best CUPRA in 13th, ahead of the best Audi of Jean-Karl Vernay in 14th. Vervisch was just 15th after losing his best lap time.
Race two gets underway at 14:30 local time (07:30 BST, 08:30 CEST), followed by race three at 15:50 local time (08:50 BST, 09:50 CEST).
Q3 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 100 | Yvan MULLER |  |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 1:50.135 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 1:50.417 | 0.282 |
| 3 | 29 | Néstor GIROLAMI |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 3 | 1:50.497 | 0.362 |
| 4 | 21 | Aurélien PANIS | |
Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing | CUPRA TCR | 3 | 1:50.536 | 0.401 |
| 5 | 88 | Nicky CATSBURG |  |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 1:50.735 | 0.600 |
Q2 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 21 | Aurélien PANIS | |
Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing | CUPRA TCR | 3 | 1:50.072 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 88 | Nicky CATSBURG | |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 1:50.325 | 0.253 |
| 3 | 29 | Néstor GIROLAMI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 4 | 1:50.462 | 0.390 |
| 4 | 100 | Yvan MULLER | |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 4 | 1:50.495 | 0.423 |
| 5 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 4 | 1:50.514 | 0.442 |
| 6 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 3 | 1:50.514 | 0.442 |
| 7 | 1 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 1:50.538 | 0.466 |
| 8 | 8 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 1:50.710 | 0.638 |
| 9 | 11 | Thed BJÖRK |  |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 4 | 1:50.743 | 0.671 |
| 10 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 1:50.794 | 0.722 |
| 11 | 111 | Andy PRIAULX |  |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 4 | 1:50.821 | 0.749 |
| 12 | 55 | Ma QING HUA |  |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 3 | No time | N/A |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 55 | Ma QING HUA | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 5 | 1:49.980 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ | |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:50.059 | 0.079 |
| 3 | 21 | Aurélien PANIS | |
Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing | CUPRA TCR | 6 | 1:50.129 | 0.149 |
| 4 | 11 | Thed BJÖRK | |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 8 | 1:50.194 | 0.214 |
| 5 | 100 | Yvan MULLER | |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 8 | 1:50.233 | 0.253 |
| 6 | 88 | Nicky CATSBURG | |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:50.275 | 0.295 |
| 7 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 8 | 1:50.313 | 0.333 |
| 8 | 29 | Néstor GIROLAMI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 8 | 1:50.316 | 0.336 |
| 9 | 111 | Andy PRIAULX | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 8 | 1:50.334 | 0.354 |
| 10 | 8 | Augusto FARFUS | |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:50.420 | 0.440 |
| 11 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 8 | 1:50.422 | 0.442 |
| 12 | 1 | Gabriele TARQUINI | |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:50.566 | 0.586 |
| 13 | 37 | Daniel HAGLÖF | |
PWR Racing | CUPRA TCR | 7 | 1:50.568 | 0.588 |
| 14 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY | |
Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 7 | 1:50.609 | 0.629 |
| 15 | 22 | Frédéric VERVISCH |  |
Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 7 | 1:50.735 | 0.755 |
| 16 | 96 | Mikel AZCONA |  |
PWR Racing | CUPRA TCR | 6 | 1:50.785 | 0.805 |
| 17 | 9 | Attila TASSI | |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 8 | 1:50.876 | 0.896 |
| 18 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 8 | 1:50.912 | 0.932 |
| 19 | 33 | Benjamin LEUCHTER |  |
SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 8 | 1:50.950 | 0.970 |
| 20 | 12 | Rob HUFF | |
SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 7 | 1:51.003 | 1.023 |
| 21 | 50 | Tom CORONEL | |
Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 1:51.067 | 1.087 |
| 22 | 14 | Johan KRISTOFFERSSON | |
SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 6 | 1:51.086 | 1.106 |
| 23 | 10 | Niels LANGEVELD | |
Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 7 | 1:51.124 | 1.144 |
| 24 | 25 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 7 | 1:51.130 | 1.150 |
| 25 | 52 | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 1:52.420 | 2.440 |
| 26 | 31 | Kevin CECCON | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |