WestCoast Racing’s Harald Proczyk took pole position in qualifying for the TCR International Series at the Salzburgring, before being hit by a grid penalty for blocking other competitors around the high-speed circuit.
Proczyk had originally qualified on pole in the wet, but was subsequently hit with a two-place griid penalty for blocking the ‘fast lane’ in the Q2 segment of qualifying.
That handed pole position to Volkswagen driver Jean-Karl Vernay who, while originally over three tenths of a second behind Proczyk, impressed in the wet conditions after two disastrous practice sessions.
Championship Leader and Craft-Bamboo driver Pepe Oriola was a further three tenths behind in third, which later became second, out-pacing Practice pace-setter WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli by over half a second. Morbidelli too was hit with a two-place grid penalty, dropping the Italian to sixth.
Close behind Morbidell on the time-sheet was Jordi Oriola in fifth putting in a time just over one-hundred seconds.
Fifth on the grid after the penalties was tightly fought over between B3 Racing’s Dušan Borković and Craft-Bamboo’s Sergey Afanasyev with the latter being defeated by just two-hundredths of a second.
After a two-race sabbatical it was a productive return to from for the Alfa Romeo armed Mulsanne Racing squad with Petr Fulin breaking the top ten ahead of Q1 pace-setter Attila Tassi in his B3 Racing Seat.
B3 Racing’s and 5th in the Championship Mat O’ Homola will be disappointed with his qualifying performance after missing out on the top ten by over one second.
Q2 times
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 43 | Harald PROCZYK* |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 6 | 1:38.767 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 2 | Jean-Karl VERNAY |  |
Leopard Racing | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 6 | 1:39.079 | 0.312 |
| 3 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 6 | 1:39.359 | 0.592 |
| 4 | 10 | Gianni MORBIDELLI* |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 5 | 1:39.964 | 1.197 |
| 5 | 33 | Jordi ORIOLA | |
Target Competition | Honda Civic TCR | 6 | 1:40.064 | 1.297 |
| 6 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 5 | 1:40.214 | 1.447 |
| 7 | 77 | Sergey AFANASYEV |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 5 | 1:40.230 | 1.463 |
| 8 | 22 | Petr FULÍN |  |
Mulsanne Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 4 | 1:40.487 | 1.720 |
| 9 | 8 | Mikhail GRACHEV | |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 5 | 1:40.639 | 1.872 |
| 10 | 9 | Attila TASSI |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 5 | 1:40.788 | 2.021 |
| 11 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 5 | 1:41.846 | 3.079 |
| 12 | 45 | Florian JANITS | |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 6 | 1:44.241 | 5.474 |
* Given a two-place grid penalty for blocking the fast lane during Q2.