FIA World Touring Car Championship Champion José María López wins DHL Pole Position Award

DHL, the world's leading logistics group and Official Logistics Partner of the World Touring Car Championship, today recognized Citroën C-Elysée WTCC driver José María López as the winner of the inaugural DHL Pole Position Award. At a special ceremony during the FIA WTCC DHL RACE OF QATAR, DHL Express Country Manager Qatar, Nael Attiyat, handed over the award – a donation to Enseñá por Argentina, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending education inequity for children in Lopez’s native Argentina.

With the fastest qualifying performance at six / seven of the 12 races during the entire 2015 WTCC season, Lopez won the DHL Pole Position Award ahead of Citroën C-Elysée WTCC teammate Yvan Muller, with three / four starts from pole position. His victory seals a historic treble for Lopez and the Citroën C-Elysée WTCC team. He also secured the FIA WTCC Drivers’ Championship in 2015, while Citroen won the FIA WTCC Manufacturers’ Championship.

“Performing strongly in qualification is critically important to any race driver - on every occasion that I started from pole position in 2015, I was standing at the top of the podium at the end of the race. This shows just how important good preparation and a will to win are, whether you’re out on the race track with the Citroën C-Elysée WTCC team or providing logistics services with DHL,” said José María López.

“The DHL Pole Position Award was established in 2015 to recognize the WTCC driver who most consistently puts himself in a winning position before each race. It recognizes speed, determination and good preparation, which are all reasons that our customers, including WTCC, turn to DHL for their logistics support. We congratulate José María López with his victory and also with his second consecutive victory in the Drivers’ Championship,” said Nour Suliman, CEO, DHL Express Middle East & North Africa.

Lopez started from the front of the grid in 2015 in Qatar, Argentina, Morocco, Germany, Portugal, China and Thailand.

Enseñá por Argentina is a non-profit organization devoted to supporting education for all children in Argentina. Its mission is to end educational inequity so that where a child is born in Argentina no longer determines his or her educational outcomes and opportunities in life. It is part of the Teach For All network, with which Deutsche Post DHL Group has a long-standing partnership around the world through its GoTeach corporate responsibility program.