Rob Huff has claimed a sensational pole position at Macau with a new lap record of the famous Guia street circuit in his ALL-INKL.com Münnich Motorsport Citroën C-Elysée.
Briton Huff ran last in the top-five qualifying shootout and recorded a fastest lap of 2m23.995s, beating José María López’s previous best time of 2m24.294s by three tenths of a second.
Norbert Michelisz was the man deposed by Huff’s fastest time, the Hungarian title contender instead settling for second in his Honda Civic WTCC but cutting Thed Björk’s championship lead to 14.5 points after the Swede had to make do with fourth place.
Tom Chilton claimed a fine third in his Sébastien Loeb Racing Citroën C-Elysée, beating Björk, the leading Volvo Polestar driver and best rookie, and Michelisz’s Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team stablemate Esteban Guerrieri to the position.
A WTCC career-best sixth was Kevin Gleason’s reward for steering clear of the barriers around the 6.120-kilometre track, the American out-qualifying the third factory Honda Civic WTCC of Ryo Michigami and Tom Coronel.
John Filippi was classified ninth in the second part of qualifying but did not record a flying lap after clouting the wall on the exit of the final corner, while Néstor Girolami and Mehdi Bennani were both caught up at Police Bend and also failed to set meaningful times.
The third Volvo of Nicky Catsburg set the early pace in the first part of qualifying but his fortune unravelled thereafter as he hit a wall exiting Fishermen’s bend near the end of the lap. The Dutchman was not allowed to take part in Q2 after his car was recovered to the pits.
Yann Ehrlacher missed out on the second part of qualifying and will start Sunday’s Main Race from P13 ahead of Zengő Motorsport pair Zsolt Dávid Szabó and Dániel Nagy, with Mak Ka Lok next up.
Returning two-time race winner Ma Qing Hua crashed on his first flying lap, while WTCC debutant Po Wah Wong also hit a wall in his Campos Racing entry.
MAC3: Honda beats Volvo Polestar
The Castrol Honda World Touring Car Team secured a comfortable victory in the Manufacturers Against the Clock team time trial ahead of a hobbled Polestar Cyan Racing team.
Norbert Michelisz led the charge of Honda Civic WTCCs off the line at the start of the team’s run, with Esteban Guerrieri and Ryo Michigami slotting in behind the title hopeful.
The trio completed their two-lap run of the Circuito da Guia in a time of 5m04.465s, which ended up comfortably faster than the Volvo S60s that ran second.
After Néstor Girolami and Nicky Catsburg were both caught up in incidents during qualifying, all three Volvo drivers – led by Thed Björk – cruised around the circuit and brought their cars home safely in a time of 8m48.108s.