Aurélien Comte snatches race one pole from Kevin Ceccon at Suzuka

DG Sport Compétition’s Aurélien Comte secured pole position for the opening World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) race at Suzuka, after edging out Kevin Ceccon’s Alfa Romeo in an unexpected front row.

Ceccon had set the pace on the first run of fast laps, after showing flashes of pace in second practice before collecting a tyre stack at the final chicane and ending his session prematurely.

With his Alfa Romeo Giulietta repaired for qualifying, the Italian racer nearly gave the marque a maiden WTCR pole before Comte went a tenth clear on his second flyer.

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Esteban Guerrieri had threatened to better the Frenchman’s time with purple in sectors one and two before being held up by Gabriele Tarquini in what was a long queue of traffic.

Guerrieri’s Münnich Motorsport teammate Yann Ehrlacher joins him on an all-Honda second row of the grid for the opening contest, with two Hyundai’s locking out the third row with Gabriele Tarquini and Yvan Muller fifth and sixth respectively.

The best of the Volkswagens was Mehdi Bennani, who continued his impressive form in seventh ahead of Norbert Michelisz.

Jean-Karl Vernay had seemed to struggle for pace throughout the session, but the Wuhan race one winner did well to salvage a lap good enough for ninth in the closing moments.

First practice pace-setter Mat’o Homola completed the top ten, despite slight bodywork damage to his Peugeot 308 TCR after clipping the tyre stack at turn four and necessitating a brief red flag period to put it back in position.

Popular returnee Tiago Monteiro qualified in a creditable 20th, just 1.4s adrift of Comte’s benchmark time.

Behind him, race three Wuhan winner Gordon Shedden struggled, only managing 22nd position.

Qualifying result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	7	Aurélien COMTE		DG Sport Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	11	2:11.536	0.000
2	31	Kevin CECCON		Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	10	2:11.643	0.107
3	86	Esteban GUERRIERI		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	10	2:11.708	0.172
4	68	Yann EHRLACHER		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	10	2:11.872	0.336
5	30	Gabriele TARQUINI		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	2:12.109	0.573
6	48	Yvan MULLER		YMR	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	2:12.114	0.578
7	25	Mehdi BENNANI		Sébastien Loeb Racing	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	12	2:12.168	0.632
8	5	Norbert MICHELISZ		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	2:12.258	0.722
9	69	Jean-Karl VERNAY		Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team	Audi RS3 LMS	11	2:12.312	0.776
10	70	Mat’o HOMOLA		DG Sport Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	11	2:12.318	0.782
11	22	Frédéric VERVISCH		Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS	10	2:12.342	0.806
12	74	Pepe ORIOLA		Team Oscaro by Campos Racing	CUPRA TCR	11	2:12.455	0.919
13	21	Aurélien PANIS		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS	11	2:12.492	0.956
14	23	Nathanaël BERTHON		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS	11	2:12.504	0.968
15	12	Rob HUFF		Sébastien Loeb Racing	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	10	2:12.553	1.017
16	16	Luigi FERRARA		Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR	10	2:12.742	1.206
17	11	Thed BJÖRK		YMR	Hyundai i30 N TCR	11	2:12.764	1.228
18	42	Timo SCHEIDER		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	11	2:12.867	1.331
19	27	John FILIPPI		Team Oscaro by Campos Racing	CUPRA TCR	10	2:12.877	1.341
20	18	Tiago MONTEIRO		Boutsen Ginion Racing	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	10	2:13.020	1.484
21	20	Denis DUPONT		Audi Sport Team Comtoyou	Audi RS3 LMS	10	2:13.033	1.497
22	52	Gordon SHEDDEN		Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team	Audi RS3 LMS	10	2:13.071	1.535
23	9	Tom CORONEL		Boutsen Ginion Racing	Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR	10	2:13.616	2.080
24	66	Zsolt Dávid SZABÓ		Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	10	2:14.211	2.675
25	8	Norbert NAGY		Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	12	2:14.936	3.400