SLR’s Rob Huff beat Cyan Racing’s Andy Priaulx to pole position for race three of the FIA World Touring Car Cup in Macau with a scintillating lap that was over two tenths faster than the Lynk & Co driver.
Huff is chasing his tenth win on the Circuito da Guia, and after topping the practice sessions on Thursday the Volkswagen driver went into Friday’s qualifying sessions in a confident mood.
Having qualified seventh fastest in the day’s first red-flag interrupted session, Huff then upped his game for the longer three-part qualifying session for races two and three.
The Brit dominated the session, topping all three segments, as he stamped his authority on the notorious street circuit.
Priaulx enjoyed his best qualifying session of the year with second on his return to the circuit at which he won numerous WTCC titles.
WRT’s Jean-Karl Vernay continued to impress as the fastest Audi driver, with the Frenchman qualifying in third, ahead of the leading Hyundai of Nicky Catsburg in fourth.
Johan Krisotffersson made it a strong day for SLR by qualifying in fifth, the Swede being almost three seconds slower than team-mate Huff after a mistake on his Q3 lap.
Yvan Muller, who qualified on pole for race one, just missed out on entry to Q3 and was sixth as the best of the title contenders, ahead of a strong showing by the Alfa Romeo of Team Mulsanne’s Kevin Ceccon in seventh.
Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk was eighth, ahead of team-mate Yann Ehrlacher in ninth and championship leader Esteban Guerrieri in tenth.
Crucially that gives the Münnich Motorsport driver the reverse-grid pole for race two, making up for his average first qualifying session, where the Argentine was just 13th behind all of his title rivals.
BRC Racing’s Gabriele Tarquini just missed out on the top ten and was 11th, whilst his team-mate Norbert Michelisz failed to post a time in Q2 after the Hungarian crashed into the back of Gordon Shedden in Q1 in an incident which brought out the red flags.
The damage to Michelisz’s car meant there was insufficient time for it to be repaired in time for Q2, leaving him behind all of his title rivals on the race two and three grid.
Niels Langeveld just missed out on progressing past Q1 and was 13th, ahead of the best CUPRA of Tom Coronel in 14th.
Despite claiming pole position last time out in Japan, KCMG’s Tiago Monteiro struggled for pace and could only manage 26th in his Honda, slowest of all of the full-season competitors.
Only three of the six wildcard entries managed to post a time, with Billy Lo the quickest in his Tian Shi Zuver Team Audi, more than six seconds off the pace.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 14:55 local time on Saturday (06:55 GMT, 07:55 CET).
Q3 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 12 | Rob HUFF |  |
SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 3 | 2:28.538 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 111 | Andy PRIAULX | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 2:28.744 | 0.206 |
| 3 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY |  |
Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 3 | 2:29.336 | 0.798 |
| 4 | 88 | Nicky CATSBURG |  |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 2:29.531 | 0.993 |
| 5 | 14 | Johan KRISTOFFERSSON |  |
SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 3 | 2:31.369 | 2.831 |
Q2 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 12 | Rob HUFF | |
SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 5 | 2:27.963 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 88 | Nicky CATSBURG | |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 2:28.373 | 0.410 |
| 3 | 111 | Andy PRIAULX | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 5 | 2:28.586 | 0.623 |
| 4 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY | |
Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 2:28.780 | 0.817 |
| 5 | 14 | Johan KRISTOFFERSSON | |
SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 5 | 2:28.845 | 0.882 |
| 6 | 100 | Yvan MULLER | |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 5 | 2:28.860 | 0.897 |
| 7 | 31 | Kevin CECCON |  |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 5 | 2:29.010 | 1.047 |
| 8 | 11 | Thed BJÖRK | |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 5 | 2:29.133 | 1.170 |
| 9 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 5 | 2:29.291 | 1.328 |
| 10 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 5 | 2:29.571 | 1.608 |
| 11 | 1 | Gabriele TARQUINI | |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 2 | 2:29.986 | 2.023 |
| 12 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 12 | Rob HUFF | |
SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | 2:29.019 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 88 | Nicky CATSBURG | |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 2:29.163 | 0.144 |
| 3 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 7 | 2:29.182 | 0.163 |
| 4 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ | |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 2:29.262 | 0.243 |
| 5 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY | |
Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 2:29.414 | 0.395 |
| 6 | 100 | Yvan MULLER | |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 8 | 2:29.445 | 0.426 |
| 7 | 31 | Kevin CECCON | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 9 | 2:29.581 | 0.562 |
| 8 | 14 | Johan KRISTOFFERSSON | |
SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | 2:29.582 | 0.563 |
| 9 | 1 | Gabriele TARQUINI | |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 2:29.602 | 0.583 |
| 10 | 111 | Andy PRIAULX | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 9 | 2:29.820 | 0.801 |
| 11 | 11 | Thed BJÖRK | |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 9 | 2:29.934 | 0.915 |
| 12 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 9 | 2:29.979 | 0.960 |
| 13 | 10 | Niels LANGEVELD | |
Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 2:30.070 | 1.051 |
| 14 | 50 | Tom CORONEL | |
Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing | CUPRA TCR | 9 | 2:30.092 | 1.073 |
| 15 | 6 | Luca ENGSTLER |  |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 2:30.146 | 1.127 |
| 16 | 52 | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 2:30.328 | 1.309 |
| 17 | 9 | Attila TASSI | |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 8 | 2:30.359 | 1.340 |
| 18 | 29 | Néstor GIROLAMI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 8 | 2:30.375 | 1.356 |
| 19 | 22 | Frédéric VERVISCH |  |
Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 2:30.510 | 1.491 |
| 20 | 25 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | 2:30.684 | 1.665 |
| 21 | 2 | Robert DAHLGREN | |
PWR Racing | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 2:31.048 | 2.029 |
| 22 | 21 | Aurélien PANIS | |
Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 2:31.496 | 2.477 |
| 23 | 96 | Mikel AZCONA |  |
PWR Racing | CUPRA TCR | 5 | 2:31.605 | 2.586 |
| 24 | 55 | Ma QING HUA |  |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 8 | 2:31.691 | 2.672 |
| 25 | 33 | Benjamin LEUCHTER | |
SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 5 | 2:31.871 | 2.852 |
| 26 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 8 | 2:32.183 | 3.164 |
| 27 | 36 | Billy LO Kai Fung |  |
Tian Shi Zuver Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 2:35.384 | 6.365 |
| 28 | 98 | James TANG Chi Lun |  |
Team TRC | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 10 | 2:37.801 | 8.782 |
| 29 | 59 | Kwai Wah WONG | |
Son Veng Racing Team | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | 2:41.201 | 12.182 |
| 30 | 19 | Jim KA TO | |
KC Motorgroup | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 1 | No time | N/A |
| 31 | 97 | Terence TSE Kin Leung | |
Team TRC | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 2 | No time | N/A |
| 32 | 99 | Arthur LAW Tia Fan | |
Team TRC | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |