Tom Coronel claimed the first pole position of the 2021 TCR Europe Series, with a lap time of 2:10.334 around the Slovakiaring circuit.
With it being the first qualifying session of the year however, here’s a reminder of the format:
Qualifying for TCR Europe is split into two sessions, whereby only the top twelve progress into the second stage to battle for the best grid slots. The grid for race one is then defined by the combined order from both stages, while race two will see the top ten reversed. Plus, as further incentive to do well, the ten fastest qualifiers also score points towards their championship tally.
Onto the action then, and it was the Dutchman who set the early benchmark in phase one with a preliminary lap time of 2:11.219. Home hero Mat’o Homola was a second further back, with his team-mate Jáchym Galáš a further half-second off the pace. However, before anyone else could put in a lap that resembled something close to their full pace, Teddy Clairet slid off the circuit and into the gravel trap.
The red flags were unveiled to halt the session in order for Clairet’s Peugeot to be retrieved, but having been the cause of a stoppage, Teddy would be unable to take part in the restart. As a result, the Frenchman will start both races this weekend from the very back of the grid.
When proceedings got underway again, Dušan Borković found some clear air, and consequently usurped Coronel’s initial lap time with his own benchmark of 2:10.758. His lead in the rankings didn’t last for long however, as just a few moments later Mikel Azcona went two tenths of a second faster.
Coronel then responded, but his pace was only good enough to reclaim second from team-mate Borković. However, that would all prove to be inconsequential anyway, as the real fight for pole would come in phase two.
Meanwhile, further down the order, Sébastien Loeb Racing were still suffering from understeer issues with their quartet of brand new Elantras. Mehdi Bennani looked secure in eighth place, though Niels Langeveld was on the cusp of elimination from qualifying in twelfth. Felice Jelmini was also in strife, having yet to set a time with just two minutes left on the clock. But then, in the dying seconds of the first phase of qualifying, Jelmini posted a lap time of to go twelfth quickest, thus knocking out his team-mate Langeveld.
Galáš was the next driver to be eliminated from qualifying in fourteenth place, ahead of Jimmy Clairet in fifteenth whose Peugeot seemed ill-suited to the fast, flowing Slovakiaring layout.
The Hondas of Martin Ryba, Viktor Davidovski, and Jack Young will start both races from sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth, ahead of the Sami Taoufik in the fourth SLR Elantra in nineteenth. Sylvain Pussier and Gilles Colombani rounded out the list of drivers able to set a lap time.
Onto phase two of qualifying, Borković was once again the early pace-setter with a lap time of 2:10.720. However, Azcona then went five hundredths of a second quicker, but was then outshone by Nicolas Baert in another of the Comtoyou Racing Audis.
The young Belgian was pipped by his more experienced team-mate Coronel however, whose lap time of 2:10.334 would be good enough to secure pole. Azcona attempted one final push, but in the end the 2018 champion had to settle for the second spot on the front row of the grid.
Baert and Borković ended up third and fourth respectively, while the top five was completed by Zengő Motorsport’s Dániel Nagy.
Two tenths of a second behind Nagy, Franco Girolami was the best-placed of the Honda contingent in sixth, ahead of Russian privateer Klim Gavrilov who claimed seventh.
Teenager Isidro Callejas impressed to go eighth-fastest in his first TCR Europe qualifying session, with tuition from touring car stalwart Pepe Oriola seeming to pay off.
The two Hyundai Elantra N TCRs of Felice Jelmini and Mehdi Bennani went ninth and tenth fastest respectively, and with that ensured a front row lock-out of the reversed grid for Sébastien Loeb Racing in race two – not bad considering the team’s teething issues so far this weekend.
Azcona’s Volcano Motorsport team-mate Evgenii Leonov will start both races from eleventh place on the grid, while a fluid leak meant that Homola was unable to take to the track in phase two, and as such will start from twelfth.
Race one gets underway later this afternoon at 15:15 local time (14:15 BST).