Néstor Girolami claims race one pole position in Hungary

Néstor Girolami kept Honda at the top of the times in qualifying for the first FIA World Touring Car Cup race at the Hungaroring, displacing the Lynk & Co of Yvan Muller in the final minutes of the session.

The Argentine driver’s time of 1 minute 52.586 seconds was the fastest of the weekend so far, putting the Münnich Motorsport driver 0.171 seconds ahead of Cyan Racing’s Muller and ensuring that the Argentine racers are still unbeaten in the weekend to-date.

Esteban Guerrieri, who had been quickest in second practice, put in a late improvement to go third in his Münnich Honda, albeit three-tenths slower than his team-mate.

Comtoyou Racing’s Aurélien Panis continued to impress by posting the fourth fastest lap in his CUPRA, ahead of the Cyan Racing duo Yann Ehrlacher and Thed Björk in fifth and sixth respectively.

Johan Kristoffersson once again put in a standout performance for Volkswagen, being the only Golf GTi driver to crack the top ten by posting the seventh best time.

Audi driver Jean-Karl Vernay was eighth fastest, whilst BRC Racing’s Augusto Farfus and Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch completed the top ten. Farfus was one of many drivers to have lap times disallowed for exceeding track limits at Turn 11, putting in a lap late in the session.

PWR Racing’s Daniel Haglöf was 11^th, putting in a strong lap late in the session, ahead of SLR’s Mehdi Bennani in 12^th.

The session’s early pace had been set by the BRC Racing Hyundai of Gabriele Tarquini, but the Italian’s time of 1 minute 53.298 seconds, set after nine minutes, meant he was just 14^th despite having been top at the time.

Tarquini will line-up behind team-mate Norbert Michelisz, who was 13^th fastest on home soil.

Amongst the raft of drivers who had their lap times disallowed for track limits infringements, BRC’s Nicky Catsburg suffered the most, losing his best lap and leaving him in 20^th on the grid for the first race of the weekend.

Race one gets underway at 15:15 CEST (14:15 BST).

Qualifying result

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	29	Néstor GIROLAMI		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R TCR		1:52.586	0.000
2	100	Yvan MULLER		Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR		1:52.757	0.171
3	86	Esteban GUERRIERI		ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R TCR		1:52.893	0.307
4	21	Aurélien PANIS		Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing	CUPRA TCR		1:52.955	0.369
5	68	Yann EHRLACHER		Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR		1:53.042	0.456
6	11	Thed BJÖRK		Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR		1:53.065	0.479
7	14	Johan KRISTOFFERSSON		SLR Volkswagen	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR		1:53.158	0.572
8	69	Jean-Karl VERNAY		Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR		1:53.217	0.631
9	8	Augusto FARFUS		BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR		1:53.267	0.681
10	22	Frédéric VERVISCH		Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR		1:53.274	0.688
11	37	Daniel HAGLÖF		PWR Racing	CUPRA TCR		1:53.286	0.700
12	25	Mehdi BENNANI		SLR VW Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR		1:53.289	0.703
13	5	Norbert MICHELISZ		BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai i30 N TCR		1:53.290	0.704
14	1	Gabriele TARQUINI		BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai i30 N TCR		1:53.298	0.712
15	111	Andy PRIAULX		Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR		1:53.397	0.811
16	96	Mikel AZCONA		PWR Racing	CUPRA TCR		1:53.486	0.900
17	12	Rob HUFF		SLR VW Motorsport	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR		1:53.496	0.910
18	9	Attila TASSI		KCMG	Honda Civic Type R TCR		1:53.548	0.962
19	31	Kevin CECCON		Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR		1:53.659	1.073
20	88	Nicky CATSBURG		BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR		1:53.690	1.104
21	55	Ma QING HUA		Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR		1:53.780	1.194
22	10	Niels LANGEVELD		Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR		1:53.845	1.259
23	18	Tiago MONTEIRO		KCMG	Honda Civic Type R TCR		1:53.903	1.317
24	52	Gordon SHEDDEN		Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR		1:54.048	1.462
25	33	Benjamin LEUCHTER		SLR Volkswagen	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR		1:54.078	1.492
26	50	Tom CORONEL		Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing	CUPRA TCR		1:54.213	1.627
27	23	Támas TENKE		Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA TCR		1:57.067	4.481