Mat’o Homola took his first pole position of the year ahead of round seven of the TCR Europe series at Circuit Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The Slovakian driver’s 1 minute 54.292 time was just 0.024 seconds faster than Mike Halder in the Profi Car Team Halder Honda Civic, with the second BRC Racing Team Hyundai of Daniel Nagy taking third.
Q1 saw almost all of the leading drivers in the championship make it through, however series leader Dan Lloyd missed out and could only manage 13th after being knocked out late on by Teddy Clairet in the Team Clairet Sport Peugeot.
The British driver admitted afterwards he was happy with his lap, but wasn’t happy with the current Balance of Performance of the Brtuel Fish Racing Team Honda compared to his rivals, as well as having to carry extra weight as championship leader.
Fourth at the end of qualifuing was Lloyd’s teammate, Pepe Oriola who set a time just 0.010 seconds faster than 2nd in the championship Mehdi Bennani who took fifth.
Fastest in both practice sessions yesterday, Moroccan driver Sami Taoufik set the sixth fastest time with ComtoYou Racing teammate Nicolas Baert 0.163 seconds further behind.
Jessica Bäckman will line up alongside her brother for tomorrow’s reverse grid race after she finished ninth, with Andreas completing the top 10 in the pair of Target Competition Hyundais.
11th quickest was Teddy Clairet after his late heroics in Q1, with Evgenii Leonov in the sole CUPRA TCR finishing 12th.
Race one of the TCR Europe series at Barcelona is scheduled to get underway later today at 14:05 CEST (15:05 BST).
Q2 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 1:54.292 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 7 | Mike HALDER |  |
Profi Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 4 | 1:54.316 | 0.024 |
| 3 | 99 | Dániel NAGY |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 1:54.420 | 0.128 |
| 4 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 3 | 1:54.479 | 0.187 |
| 5 | 250 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 3 | 1:54.489 | 0.197 |
| 6 | 25 | Sami TAOUFIK | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | 1:54.522 | 0.230 |
| 7 | 8 | Nicolas BAERT |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 3 | 1:54.685 | 0.393 |
| 8 | 27 | John FILIPPI |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:54.962 | 0.670 |
| 9 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:55.025 | 0.733 |
| 10 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:55.041 | 0.749 |
| 11 | 20 | Teddy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 5 | 1:55.365 | 1.073 |
| 12 | 16 | Evgenii LEONOV |  |
Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 5 | 1:55.454 | 1.162 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 1:54.419 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 8 | Nicolas BAERT | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 1:54.490 | 0.071 |
| 3 | 99 | Dániel NAGY | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:54.503 | 0.084 |
| 4 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:54.682 | 0.263 |
| 5 | 16 | Evgenii LEONOV | |
Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 1:54.683 | 0.264 |
| 6 | 250 | Mehdi BENNANI | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 1:54.763 | 0.344 |
| 7 | 25 | Sami TAOUFIK | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | 1:54.782 | 0.363 |
| 8 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:54.796 | 0.377 |
| 9 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 1:54.800 | 0.381 |
| 10 | 7 | Mike HALDER | |
Profi Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 7 | 1:54.870 | 0.451 |
| 11 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA | |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 8 | 1:54.911 | 0.492 |
| 12 | 20 | Teddy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 9 | 1:54.975 | 0.556 |
| 13 | 123 | Daniel LLOYD |  |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 8 | 1:55.142 | 0.723 |
| 14 | 24 | Julien BRICHÉ | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 8 | 1:55.151 | 0.732 |
| 15 | 17 | Martin RYBA | |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 8 | 1:55.302 | 0.883 |
| 16 | 53 | Michelle HALDER | |
Profi Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 8 | 1:55.352 | 0.933 |
| 17 | 21 | Jimmy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 8 | 1:55.495 | 1.076 |
| 18 | 33 | José Manuel SAPAG |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:55.551 | 1.132 |
| 19 | 81 | Stéphane VENTAJA | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 9 | 1:55.652 | 1.233 |
| 20 | 4 | Florian BRICHÉ | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 6 | 1:56.273 | 1.854 |
| 21 | 66 | Gilles COLOMBANI | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 9 | 1:56.774 | 2.355 |
| 22 | 6 | Jean Laurent NAVARRO | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 8 | 1:57.693 | 3.274 |