Mehdi Bennani edges out Dan Lloyd in close Monza qualifying

Comtoyou Racing’s Mehdi Bennani scored a narrow pole position in qualifying for the TCR Europe series at Monza, edging out Brutal Fish Racing’s Dan Lloyd by a mere 0.035 seconds.

Bennani posted the fastest lap of the weekend so far in the second part of qualifying, his Audi lapping the fast Italian circuit in a time of 1 minute 57.168 seconds to beat the Honda of Lloyd by less than a tenth of a second.

The Moroccan’s time, at a dry and sunny Monza, came on his first run in the Q2 part of qualifying, as the majority of the field put in their best laps on their first flying lap in the crucial qualifying segment.

Championship leader Lloyd put in his best qualifying performance of the season so far as the Brit secured a front-row start for race one.

Jimmy Clairet was the best of the Peugeot drivers in third, the Frenchman three and a half tenths off the pace and edging out last year’s pole-sitter Julien Briché by half a tenth, with Briché claiming fourth.

Pepe Oriola, who had been quick early on in Q1, was fifth in his Honda, the Spaniard enjoying his best qualifying session of the year, just under half a second off the pace.

BRC Racing’s Mat’o Homola was the best Hyundai driver in sixth, ahead of Teddy Clairet’s Peugeot in seventh.

Nicolas Baert was the only other Audi driver in Q2 and qualified in eighth, with the top ten being completed by the Honda of Mike Halder and the Hyundai of John Filippi.

Filippi thus secures the reverse-grid pole position for the second race of the weekend, the Target Competition driver being the only other person within a second of the pace.

BRC’s Dániel Nagy just missed out on tenth, the Hungarian being two tenths slower than Filippi, with TCR Italy regular Felice Jelmini completing the Q2 competitors in 12^th in his Hyundai.

Neither of the Bäckmans made it into Q2, with Jessica the best-placed of Target competition’s Swedish siblings in 13^th, as she was almost a second and a half off the pace despite her having been fifth fastest in Friday’s second practice session.

Michelle Halder also struggled to improve on her time in Q1, putting her Profi-Car Team Halder Honda in 14^th for both races.

Sometime-entrant Evgenii Leonov put his CUPRA in 15^th, ahead of the returning Viktor Davidovski in 16^th, the Macedonian having permission to travel to Italy this time to get his season underway two rounds later than planned.

Sami Taoufik, fourth fastest on Friday, couldn’t break below the two-minute mark on Saturday and was just 20^th in his Comtoyou Racing Audi.

The all-new Fiat Tipo TCR, being raced by Luca Rangoni this weekend, was almost three seconds off the pace in 21^st, just ahead of Tecnodom Sport’s other car of Kevin Giacon’s Audi in 22^nd.

Perhaps the biggest name to fail to post a meaningful time in Q1 was Andreas Bäckman, the Swede suffering from a hand injury after his Zolder crash two weeks’ ago and languishing down in 23^rd after his inury prevented him from posting a competitive lap.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 17:15 CEST (16:15 BST).

Q2 results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	250	Mehdi BENNANI		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	4	1:57.168	0.000
2	123	Daniel LLOYD		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	4	1:57.203	0.035
3	21	Jimmy CLAIRET		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	4	1:57.515	0.347
4	24	Julien BRICHÉ		JSB Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	4	1:57.580	0.412
5	74	Pepe ORIOLA		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	4	1:57.653	0.485
6	70	Mat’o HOMOLA		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	4	1:57.800	0.632
7	20	Teddy CLAIRET		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	4	1:57.809	0.641
8	8	Nicolas BAERT		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	3	1:57.886	0.718
9	7	Mike HALDER		Profi Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	4	1:57.986	0.818
10	27	John FILIPPI		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	4	1:58.093	0.925
11	99	Dániel NAGY		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	4	1:58.316	1.148
12	44	Felice JELMINI		PMA Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	4	1:58.370	1.202

Q1 results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	250	Mehdi BENNANI		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	8	1:57.290	0.000
2	21	Jimmy CLAIRET		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	8	1:57.419	0.129
3	123	Daniel LLOYD		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	8	1:57.562	0.272
4	70	Mat’o HOMOLA		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	8	1:57.733	0.443
5	24	Julien BRICHÉ		JSB Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	8	1:57.739	0.449
6	20	Teddy CLAIRET		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	8	1:57.843	0.553
7	74	Pepe ORIOLA		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	8	1:57.926	0.636
8	99	Dániel NAGY		BRC Racing Team	Hyundai i30 N TCR	8	1:57.959	0.669
9	44	Felice JELMINI		PMA Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	9	1:57.994	0.704
10	7	Mike HALDER		Profi Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	6	1:58.190	0.900
11	27	John FILIPPI		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	9	1:58.373	1.083
12	8	Nicolas BAERT		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	6	1:58.387	1.097
13	26	Jessica BÄCKMAN		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	9	1:58.715	1.425
14	53	Michelle HALDER		Profi Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	9	1:58.781	1.491
15	16	Evgenii LEONOV		Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA TCR	10	1:58.936	1.646
16	10	Viktor DAVIDOVSKI		PSS Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	8	1:59.028	1.738
17	17	Martin RYBA		Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	8	1:59.469	2.179
18	81	Stéphane VENTAJA		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	1:59.663	2.373
19	66	Gilles COLOMBANI		Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	10	1:59.680	2.390
20	25	Sami TAOUFIK		Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	3	2:00.084	2.794
21	64	Luca RANGONI		Tecnodom Sport	Fiat Tipo TCR	9	2:00.180	2.890
22	15	Kevin GIACON		Tecnodom Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	6	2:01.541	4.251
23	19	Andreas BÄCKMAN		Target Competition	Hyundai i30 N TCR	4	2:02.479	5.189
24	6	Jean Laurent NAVARRO		JSB Compétition	Peugeot 308 TCR	0	No time	N/A