World Touring Car Championship leader Jose Maria Lopez achieved his fifth pole position of the season at Shanghai.The Argentinean’s lap of 1m48.782 denied his increasingly impressive Chinese team-mate Ma Qing Hua a maiden pole position in his home circuit. Reigning WTCC champion Muller was fastest in Q2, and the final runner in the Q3 single-lap shootout segment. The Alsace racer appeared to lose ground to his rivals in the first sector and was unable to recover the time over the remainder of the lap.
| Pos | Class | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TC1 | Jose Maria Lopez | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1m48.782s | – |
| 2 | TC1 | Ma Qing Hua | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1m48.898s | 0.116s |
| 3 | TC1 | Yvan Muller | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1m49.424s | 0.642s |
| 4 | TC1 | Norbert Michelisz | Zengo Motorsport | Honda | 1m49.681s | 0.899s |
| 5 | TC1 | Sebastien Loeb | Citroen Total WTCC | Citroen | 1m49.830s | 1.048s |
| 6 | TC1 | Tiago Monteiro | Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda | 1m50.178s | 1.396s |
| 7 | TC1 | Gabriele Tarquini | Castrol Honda WTC Team | Honda | 1m50.229s | 1.447s |
| 8 | TC1 | Tom Chilton | ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1m50.351s | 1.569s |
| 9 | TC1 | Hugo Valente | Campos Racing | Chevrolet | 1m50.406s | 1.624s |
| 10 | TC1 | Mehdi Bennani | Proteam Racing | Honda | 1m50.528s | 1.746s |
| 11 | TC1 | Tom Coronel | ROAL Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1m50.548s | 1.766s |
| 12 | TC1 | Dusan Borkovic | NIS Petrol by Campos Racing | Chevrolet | 1m51.665s | 2.883s |
| 13 | TC1 | Gianni Morbidelli | All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1m51.655s | 2.873s |
| 14 | TC1 | James Thompson | LADA Sport Lukoil | Lada | 1m51.662s | 2.880s |
| 15 | TC1 | Robert Huff | LADA Sport Lukoil | Lada | 1m51.781s | 2.999s |
| 16 | TC1 | Mikhail Kozlovskiy | LADA Sport Lukoil | Lada | 1m51.953s | 3.171s |
| 17 | TC1 | Rene Munnich | All-Inkl.com Munnich Motorsport | Chevrolet | 1m52.393s | 3.611s |
| 18 | TC2 | Franz Engstler | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW | 1m55.315s | 6.533s |
| 19 | TC2 | John Filippi | Campos Racing | SEAT | 1m56.753s | 7.971s |
| 20 | TC2 | Williams Lok | Campos Racing | SEAT | 1m58.664s | 9.882s |
| 21 | TC2 | Filipe Souza | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | BMW | 1m58.719s | 9.937s |
