Jaap van Lagen took pole position in qualifying for the TCR Europe Series at Zandvoort, with the Audi driver a comfortable four tenths of a second ahead of the CUPRA of Mikel Azcona.
Van Lagen, who is replacing regular racer Jean-Karl Vernay at the Leopard Lukoil Team this weekend, had earlier shown his hand in first practice to go fastest in the morning, before ending second practice with the second-best time.
The Dutch racer then put in the fastest TCR Europe lap of the day in the second qualifying segment to secure pole by a healthy margin, although his lap was still around two tenths slower than the fastest WTCR lap of the day.
Azcona, who was also on the front row of the grid after qualifying at the season opener at Circuit Paul Ricard, was once again second, despite posting a time which was six tenths faster than his previous best lap of the day.
KCMG’s Attila Tassi emerged as the leading Honda driver in third and will share the second row of the grid with the leading Target Competition Hyundai of Kris Richard who was fourth, the Swiss racer having set his time on his first lap flying lap in Q2.
Richard headed up a trio of Target cars, with FP2 pace-setter Dušan Borković in fifth and Reece Barr in sixth, the latter having found himself just over a second shy of van Lagen’s pace.
Josh Files put in a late effort to snatch seventh in his KCMG-run Honda, with the Brit having been outside the top ten until the final two minutes of the session.
M1RA’s Dániel Nagy made it four Hyundais inside the top ten by qualifying in eighth, whilst Reno Racing’s Jens Reno Møller and PCR Sport’s Danny Kroes completed the top ten in their Honda and CUPRA respectively.
That gives Kroes the reverse-grid pole position for race two, with Møller starting alongside, having himself left it late to secure a position in Q2 with the final flying lap in the first qualifying session just moments earlier.
Stian Paulsen just missed out on the reverse grid and will be 11th for both races, with Macedonian racer Igor Stefanovski alongside him in his repaired day-glo Hyundai.
The late improvement from Møller in Q1 knocked out the Peugeot of JSB Compétition’s Julien Briché, leaving the Frenchman to start 13th for both races.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the session was that Belgian racer Maxime Potty failed to qualify any higher than 14th in his Comtoyou Racing Volkswagen Golf, with the 18-year-old having earlier been inside the top five in both practice sessions.
Race one takes place at 12:20 CEST (11:20 BST) on Sunday.
Q2 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 46 | Jaap VAN LAGEN |  |
Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 1:44.546 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 25 | Mikel AZCONA |  |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 4 | 1:44.980 | 0.434 |
| 3 | 9 | Attila TASSI |  |
Hell Energy Racing with KCMG | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 6 | 1:45.387 | 0.841 |
| 4 | 94 | Kris RICHARD |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 1:45.494 | 0.948 |
| 5 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | 1:45.499 | 0.953 |
| 6 | 8 | Reece BARR |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | 1:45.564 | 1.018 |
| 7 | 99 | Josh FILES |  |
Hell Energy Racing with KCMG | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 5 | 1:45.635 | 1.089 |
| 8 | 999 | Dániel NAGY | |
M1RA | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:45.712 | 1.166 |
| 9 | 11 | Jens Reno MØLLER |  |
Reno Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 4 | 1:45.722 | 1.176 |
| 10 | 38 | Danny KROES | |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 4 | 1:45.834 | 1.288 |
| 11 | 34 | Stian PAULSEN |  |
Stian Paulsen Racing | CUPRA TCR | 4 | 1:45.895 | 1.349 |
| 12 | 7 | Igor STEFANOVSKI |  |
Stefanovski Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:46.778 | 2.232 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 46 | Jaap VAN LAGEN | |
Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 1:44.821 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 34 | Stian PAULSEN | |
Stian Paulsen Racing | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 1:45.150 | 0.329 |
| 3 | 94 | Kris RICHARD | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:45.189 | 0.368 |
| 4 | 99 | Josh FILES | |
Hell Energy Racing with KCMG | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 6 | 1:45.289 | 0.468 |
| 5 | 25 | Mikel AZCONA | |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 1:45.538 | 0.717 |
| 6 | 999 | Dániel NAGY | |
M1RA | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:45.678 | 0.857 |
| 7 | 9 | Attila TASSI | |
Hell Energy Racing with KCMG | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 9 | 1:45.689 | 0.868 |
| 8 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:45.732 | 0.911 |
| 9 | 8 | Reece BARR | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 1:45.748 | 0.927 |
| 10 | 38 | Danny KROES | |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 1:45.799 | 0.978 |
| 11 | 11 | Jens Reno MØLLER | |
Reno Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 10 | 1:45.957 | 1.136 |
| 12 | 7 | Igor STEFANOVSKI | |
Stefanovski Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:45.988 | 1.167 |
| 13 | 4 | Julien BRICHÉ |  |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 9 | 1:45.998 | 1.177 |
| 14 | 88 | Maxime POTTY |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | 1:46.151 | 1.330 |
| 15 | 23 | Francisco ABREU |  |
Sports & You | Peugeot 308 TCR | 9 | 1:46.381 | 1.560 |
| 16 | 20 | Márk JEDLÓCZKY | |
JLG Sport | CUPRA TCR | 7 | 1:46.437 | 1.616 |
| 17 | 13 | Cedric PIRO |  |
Autodis Racing by Piro Sports | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 10 | 1:46.659 | 1.838 |
| 18 | 26 | Francisco MORA | |
M1RA | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:46.752 | 1.931 |
| 19 | 14 | Loris CENCETTI |  |
Autodis Racing by Piro Sports | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 2 | 1:47.536 | 2.715 |
| 20 | 10 | Viktor DAVIDOVSKY | |
PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 10 | 1:47.885 | 3.064 |
| 21 | 17 | Martin RYBA |  |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 1:49.188 | 4.367 |
| 22 | 21 | Marie BAUS-COPPENS | |
JSB Compétition | CUPRA TCR DSG | 4 | 1:51.160 | 6.339 |