Citroen's track racing adventure has come to an end

The Citroen C-Elysee WTCC team claimed its 15^th victory in three seasons, and in his farewell to elite motorsport Yvan Muller secured second place in the World Championship, behind his teammate Jose Maria 'Pechito' Lopez. Citroen's track racing adventure has come to an end after three consecutive world titles. Lopez clocked the fastest time in Q1 on Friday with 01:59.788, one second faster than the time that secured him pole in 2015.

In Q2, Muller and Lopez immediately claimed the top two positions, before the red flag was brought out. When the action resumed, Lopez once again dipped under the two-minute mark, enough to put him top of the timing screens again, just ahead of Muller.

Q3 was an unusual affair. Mehdi Bennani was first out and set a good pace. Norbert Michelisz then crashed out, causing a long delay. After the interruption, both Muller and Lopez were looking good, but both slipped up at the same turn. The few tenths of a second that those errors cost them meant the Argentine driver had to settle for the third best time, with the Frenchman in fourth. It was Bennani who then clinched the Citroen C-Elysee WTCC's 31^st pole position.

A few minutes later, the Sebastien Loeb Racing team's three drivers were out on track representing Citroen in MAC3. Bennani, Tom Chilton and Gregoire Demoustier produced a flawless performance to score maximum points for the manufacturer. The opening race got under way long after night had fallen in the Middle East. Having finished tenth in qualifying, Chilton was the man in pole position, with Gabriele Tarquini alongside him. When the lights went out, Chilton was the first man to turn, while Muller managed to haul himself into fifth place. Back in the chasing pack, Lopez was run into by Tiago Monteiro. The Portuguese driver ended up crashing off, which brought the safety car out, followed by the red flag.

Once the track had been cleaned, the race got under way again. Chilton went wide on the first bend and Tarquini took advantage to sneak past. A little further back, Muller moved up one more place into fourth. Tarquini emerged victorious in the opening race, ahead of Chilton, Rob Huff and Muller. Lopez staged an impressive recovery to finish ninth.

Fortunately, the team's mechanics had time to repair the cars' bodywork before the final race of the year. Pole sitter Bennani maintained his lead at the first turn, with Lopez just behind him after an excellent start from the second row. Muller held on to fourth place, with Thed Bjork in third.

The chasing pack was once again full of incident, and the safety car made an appearance after just one lap. A few drops of rain then came down, but certainly not enough to justify rain tyres. Shortly after the race resumed, Muller was ousted from fourth after a powerful overtaking manoeuvre from Michelisz. A few laps later, Lopez was passed by Bjork.

It looked like the race order would remain unchanged until the end - Bennani, Bjork, Lopez, Michelisz, Muller. But with just a few laps to go, Monteiro got the better of his friend and rival Muller. For Muller, however, this result was not important. The race marked the end of a magnificent career which has included winning four FIA World Touring Car Championship titles and breaking all the records in the discipline. Upon returning to the pit lane, he received a long ovation from the members of the Citroen Total team.