Pyro Motorsport’s Ollie Taylor eclipsed Dan Lloyd to take pole by 0.003s in the closing stages of TCR UK qualifying at Castle Combe.
Taylor continued his strong practice form to edge out Lloyd, who had taken the previous three pole positions so far this season.
The session was red-flagged when Darelle Wilson’s Vauxhall Astra went off at the exit of Bobbies, and Lloyd looked to have secured pole after the session got back underway.
With a few minutes remaining, Taylor then set a time of 1:07.123, to edge out Lloyd by a mere 0.003s to end his pole position run.
Lloyd headed a trio of WestCoast Racing Volkswagens, with siblings Andreas Backman and Jessica Backman qualifying third and fourth respectively, the former improving with a late effort.
Lewis Kent jumped from ninth to fifth fastest to complete the top five, after treating today’s sessions as shakedown tests following issues in pre-event testing yesterday.
Finlay Crocker was 1.265s adrift of Taylor’s pole time, and was visibly pushing hard after clipping the tyre stack on the inside of Camp Corner.
The CUPRA and Maximum Motorsport duo of Carl Swift and Stewart Lines completed the fourth row, ahead of Derek Palmer in ninth.
His teammate Robert Gilmour did not manage to make it out into the session, after his DPE Motorsport-run Alfa Romeo suffered from an ECU issue in morning warm-up, and would not run for the remainder of the day.
Completing the top ten was Darelle Wilson, who managed to set a lap time before he went off to the infield after setting a personal best sector one time.
Q1 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 32 | Oliver TAYLOR |  |
Pyro Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R TCR | 18 | 1:07.123 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 23 | Dan LLOYD | |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 8 | 1:07.126 | 0.003 |
| 3 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN |  |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 17 | 1:07.834 | 0.711 |
| 4 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN | |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 21 | 1:08.098 | 0.975 |
| 5 | 38 | Lewis KENT | |
Essex & Kent Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 20 | 1:08.238 | 1.115 |
| 6 | 8 | Finlay CROCKER | |
Verizon Connect Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 17 | 1:08.388 | 1.265 |
| 7 | 45 | Carl SWIFT | |
Endurance Financial Racing | CUPRA TCR V3 DSG | 17 | 1:08.439 | 1.316 |
| 8 | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Maximum Motorsport | CUPRA TCR V3 DSG | 22 | 1:08.587 | 1.464 |
| 9 | 61 | Derek PALMER | |
DPE Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 10 | 1:08.659 | 1.536 |
| 10 | 50 | Darelle WILSON | |
DW Racing | Vauxhall Astra TCR | 7 | 1:09.401 | 2.278 |
| 11 | 76 | Robert GILMOUR | |
DPE Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | – | No time | N/A |