Target Competition’s Roberto Colciago secured a surprise pole position on his début in the TCR International Series in Malaysia, beating Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Pepe Oriola to the top spot.
Colciago gradually improved throughout the half-hour session before posting the fastest time in the closing seconds of the session, demoting Oriola to second who had earlier been the quickest driver throughout the single session.
WestCoast Racing’s Mikhail Grachev scored his best-ever qualifying result in third, putting his Honda just 0.134 seconds slower than Colciago’s fellow Civic.
Jean-Karl Vernay was the leading Volkswagen driver in fourth, ahead of B3 Racing’s Mat’o Homola in fifth and Leopard Racing team-mate Stefano Comini in sixth, the latter having slid his way around the track at times as he pushed to the limit.
The second WestCoast Racing Honda of Gianni Morbidelli was seventh, ahead of current championship leader James Nash in eighth.
Completing the top ten were Kevin Gleason and Team Thailand’s Tin Sritrai, who was the last driver within a second of the pace and also the top competitor from the TCR Asia Series field. The duo will thus start the reverse-grid race two from pole position.
Dušan Borković just missed out on tenth by a mere 0.02 seconds, leaving the Serbian driver to start from 11th in both races, ahead of Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Sergey Afanasyev.
Rafaël Galiana was the slowest driver in the 23-car field, the Target Competition driver suffering from a lack of engine power and thus posting a time outside of the 107% maxima.
Race one starts at 17:45 local time (10:45 BST, 11:45 CEST) and will be streamed live online.
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 5 | Roberto COLCIAGO |  |
Target Competition | Honda Civic TCR | 11 | 2:15.021 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 11 | 2:15.086 | 0.065 |
| 3 | 8 | Mikhail GRACHEV |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 11 | 2:15.155 | 0.134 |
| 4 | 2 | Jean-Karl VERNAY |  |
Leopard Racing | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 10 | 2:15.296 | 0.275 |
| 5 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 12 | 2:15.310 | 0.289 |
| 6 | 1 | Stefano COMINI |  |
Leopard Racing | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 11 | 2:15.311 | 0.290 |
| 7 | 10 | Gianni MORBIDELLI | |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 7 | 2:15.476 | 0.455 |
| 8 | 54 | James NASH |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 11 | 2:15.646 | 0.625 |
| 9 | 24 | Kevin GLEASON |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 9 | 2:15.945 | 0.924 |
| 10 | 83 | Tin SRITRAI |  |
Team Thailand | Honda Civic TCR | 10 | 2:16.006 | 0.985 |
| 11 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 11 | 2:16.026 | 1.005 |
| 12 | 77 | Sergey AFANASYEV | |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 12 | 2:16.031 | 1.010 |
| 13 | 9 | Attila TASSI |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 11 | 2:16.128 | 1.107 |
| 14 | 50 | Loris HEZEMANS |  |
Target Competition | SEAT León TCR | 12 | 2:16.139 | 1.118 |
| 15 | 3 | Andy YAN Cheuk Wai |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 11 | 2:17.136 | 2.115 |
| 16 | 7 | Davit KAJAIA |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 12 | 2:17.489 | 2.468 |
| 17 | 28 | Kevin TSE Wing Kin |  |
Teamwork Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 9 | 2:17.540 | 2.519 |
| 18 | 68 | Filipe Clemente DE SOUZA | |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 11 | 2:17.979 | 2.958 |
| 19 | 72 | Nicky PASTORELLI | |
FRD Racing Team | Ford Focus TCR | 11 | 2:18.974 | 3.953 |
| 20 | 20 | Mario FERRARIS | |
Mulsanne Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 12 | 2:19.337 | 4.316 |
| 21 | 27 | Bill O’BRIEN | |
Teamwork Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 11 | 2:20.738 | 5.717 |
| 22 | 65 | Douglas KHOO Kok Hui |  |
Viper Niza Racing | SEAT León Cup Racer | 12 | 2:20.987 | 5.966 |
| 23 | 35 | Rafaël GALIANA | |
Target Competition | Honda Civic TCR | 9 | 2:29.843 | 14.822 |