Rob Huff has claimed pole position for the FIA WTCC AFRIQUIA Race of Morocco Main Race in a one-two-three qualifying result for Honda.

It is the British driver’s first DHL pole position since his World Touring Car Championship title-winning season of 2012 and Honda’s first since WTCC Race of Japan last season.

“What an incredible achievement today by the Honda Racing team, absolutely amazing,” said Huff. “We were fairly confident coming here that the track would suit the car with the stability under braking, the traction and the drivability and we lost some [compensation] weight since the last event. I didn’t think my lap was enough because I made a couple of mistakes and my two team-mates were quicker in Q2 and I was quite taken a back by that. But huge congratulations and thanks to Honda for giving me this opportunity.”

As fourth quickest in Q2, Huff was the first of the Honda trio to attempt a Q3 lap of the new-look Circuit Moulay El Hassan, but his benchmark remained unbeaten by both Norbert Michelisz and Tiago Monteiro as well as Citroën’s José María López, who struggled with a broken splitter.

Michelisz was 0.036 seconds slower than Huff, with Monteiro 0.119s off the pace in third. Despite his Q2 lap remaining unbeaten, López had to settle for fourth, 0.281s away from pole, with Nicky Catsburg taking fifth for LADA.

Yvan Muller failed to make Q3 and will start sixth for the Main Race in front of Tom Coronel, who took top spot in the WTCC Trophy for independent racers.

Thed Björk (Volvo-Polestar), Hugo Valente and James Thompson completed the top 10, with Thompson set to start on pole for the Opening Race in his independent Chevrolet.

Gabriele Tarquini and Tom Chilton are set to share row six for both races. Fredrik Ekblom was eliminated in Q1 in 13th, as was home hero Mehdi Bennani in 14th who struggled with understeer. French drivers John Filippi and Grégoire Demoustier also had an early exit, while Ferenc Ficza did not take part in qualifying due to a powersteering issue on his Honda.