Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch set the fastest time during Saturday’s TCR International qualifying at Monza, beating Roberto Colciago to the pole by a mere 0.100 seconds.
After setting the quickest time in qualifying 1, Colciago narrowly missed out on a home race pole position in the top-12 shootout. Belgian driver Vervisch went quickest of the lot with a 1:58.997, beating the previous lap record set by Gianni Morbidelli in 2015 by over one and a half second.
Colciago’s M1RA Motorsport team-mate Attila Tassi had a good shot at pole himself, but decided to not go for a last attempt on the final minute of the session. The Hungarian qualified behind his team-mate in third position. He was followed by Davit Kajaia, who put his Alfa Romeo Giulietta into fourth.
Slovak racing driver Mat’o Homola was the fastest Opel of the session, slotting in in fifth place, 0.242 seconds in front of the leading Craft-Bamboo Racing SEAT of Pepe Oriola in sixth. The Craft-Bamboo trio of Oriola, James Nash and Hugo Valente was an inseparable convoy for much of the two qualifying sessions, in a bid to provide more slipstream to one another.
The strategy did not work too well for the Silverstone-based team, with Nash and Valente only setting the ninth and tenth fastest lap respectively.
Jean-Karl Vernay and Stefano Comini – first and second in the championship standings – qualified next to each other in seventh and eighth, splitting the three Craft-Bamboo SEATs.
Rounding up the top-12 qualifiers were Jaap van Lagen and Ferenc Ficza. Both off by over a second to the leader, the two had to content themselves with eleventh and 12th.
WestCoast Racing’s Italian duo of Gianni Morbidelli and Giacomo Altoè marked the first two cars to not make the transition to qualifying two. Morbidelli put his Volkswagen in 13th, with Altoè following closely in 14th position.
Dušan Borković meanwhile, after a promising run in free practice 2, struggled to keep up with his 18 competitors, only setting the 15th fastest time in his GE-Force Alfa Romeo.
Belgian Pierre-Yves Corthals could not match the pace of his DG Sport Compétition team-mate Homola, qualifying in 16th with a 2:00.946. He marked the final driver to qualify within two seconds of the leader in qualifying 1.
The final three starting positions for race 1 were taken by Stian Paulsen, Daniele Cappellari and Jens Reno Møller in respective order. All three drivers showed a major lack of pace during the session, with Møller even trailing behind by over seven seconds.
The opening race takes place at 14:30 CEST (13:30 BST) on Saturday afternoon.
Q2 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 6 | Frédéric VERVISCH |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 1:58.997 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 5 | Roberto COLCIAGO |  |
M1RA | Honda Civic Type-R TCR | 5 | 1:59.097 | 0.100 |
| 3 | 9 | Attila TASSI |  |
M1RA | Honda Civic Type-R TCR | 5 | 1:59.131 | 0.134 |
| 4 | 16 | Davit KAJAIA |  |
GE-Force | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 5 | 1:59.469 | 0.472 |
| 5 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
DG Sport Compétition | Opel Astra TCR | 5 | 1:59.495 | 0.498 |
| 6 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing | SEAT León TCR | 5 | 1:59.737 | 0.740 |
| 7 | 2 | Jean-Karl VERNAY |  |
Leopard Racing Team WRT | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 5 | 1:59.783 | 0.786 |
| 8 | 1 | Stefano COMINI |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | 1:59.809 | 0.812 |
| 9 | 54 | James NASH |  |
Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing | SEAT León TCR | 5 | 1:59.898 | 0.901 |
| 10 | 7 | Hugo VALENTE | |
Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing | SEAT León TCR | 5 | 2:00.037 | 1.040 |
| 11 | 14 | Jaap VAN LAGEN |  |
Leopard Racing Team WRT | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 4 | 2:00.043 | 1.046 |
| 12 | 55 | Ferenc FICZA | |
Zele Racing | SEAT León TCR | 5 | 2:00.140 | 1.143 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 5 | Roberto COLCIAGO | |
M1RA | Honda Civic Type-R TCR | 9 | 1:59.601 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 9 | Attila TASSI | |
M1RA | Honda Civic Type-R TCR | 9 | 1:59.610 | 0.009 |
| 3 | 55 | Ferenc FICZA | |
Zele Racing | SEAT León TCR | 8 | 1:59.895 | 0.294 |
| 4 | 6 | Frédéric VERVISCH | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 2:00.021 | 0.420 |
| 5 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA | |
Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing | SEAT León TCR | 9 | 2:00.123 | 0.522 |
| 6 | 2 | Jean-Karl VERNAY | |
Leopard Racing Team WRT | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | 2:00.158 | 0.557 |
| 7 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA | |
DG Sport Compétition | Opel Astra TCR | 8 | 2:00.171 | 0.570 |
| 8 | 16 | Davit KAJAIA | |
GE-Force | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 7 | 2:00.180 | 0.579 |
| 9 | 7 | Hugo VALENTE | |
Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing | SEAT León TCR | 9 | 2:00.254 | 0.653 |
| 10 | 54 | James NASH | |
Lukoil Craft-Bamboo Racing | SEAT León TCR | 9 | 2:00.427 | 0.826 |
| 11 | 1 | Stefano COMINI | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 2:00.455 | 0.854 |
| 12 | 14 | Jaap VAN LAGEN | |
Leopard Racing Team WRT | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | 2:00.577 | 0.976 |
| 13 | 10 | Gianni MORBIDELLI | |
West Coast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 8 | 2:00.734 | 1.133 |
| 14 | 21 | Giacomo ALTOÈ | |
West Coast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | 2:00.832 | 1.231 |
| 15 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
GE-Force | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 8 | 2:00.847 | 1.246 |
| 16 | 23 | Pierre-Yves CORTHALS | |
DG Sport Compétition | Opel Astra TCR | 9 | 2:00.946 | 1.345 |
| 17 | 34 | Stian PAULSEN |  |
Stian Paulsen Racing | SEAT León TCR | 8 | 2:01.654 | 2.053 |
| 18 | 76 | Daniele CAPPELLARI | |
CRC | SEAT León TCR DSG | 9 | 2:04.833 | 5.232 |
| 19 | 11 | Jens Reno MØLLER |  |
Reno Racing | Honda Civic Type-R TCR | 5 | 2:06.949 | 7.348 |