Felice Jelmini claims maiden TCR Europe pole at Spa-Francorchamps

Sébastien Loeb Racing’s Felice Jelmini led a Hyundai 1-2 in qualifying for the first TCR Europe race at Spa-Francorchamps, as he beat team-mate Mehdi Bennani by over four tenths of a second.

Having set the pace in Thursday’s second practice session, Brutal Fish Racing’s Jack Young went into qualifying with high hopes. However, the Northern Irishman would be one of the first to face dramas after he spun into the barriers at Les Combes, scuppering his qualifying session due to slight front-end damage and causing a full-course yellow.

Young’s team-mate Isidro Callejas was the first to top the times, the Spaniard setting a lap of 2 minutes 31.388 seconds. Five minutes later, after Young’s car had been cleared, Jelmini then hit the top of the times with an effort of 2:31.178.

The Italian held the top time until two minutes to go when his team-mate Bennani went quickest with a 2:30.902, with Moroccan compatriot Sami Taoufik then going second a minute later.

Thereafter the top times didn’t change, although the biggest loser in the closing minutes was Volcano Motorsport’s Evgenii Leonov, who dropped to 13^th and failed to progress to Q2 after Teddy Clairet just sneaked into the top twelve.

In Q2, Bennani had set the early pace, but it was Jelmini who clinched pole two minutes from the end with his effort of 2:30.152, giving the Italian a first-ever pole in the series he only joined at the start of the year.

That left Bennani in second, with Janík Motorsport’s Mat’o Homola making a late improvement to steal third, marking a best qualifying effort of the year for the Slovakian Hyundai i30 N driver.

Title contender Mikel Azcona put his CUPRA in fourth, ahead of the Hyundai Elantra of Taoufik in fifth.

Belgian local Nicolas Baert was sixth as the best Audi racer, the only other driver within a second of the pace.

Championship leader Franco Girolami, who had set the pace in first practice, qualified his PSS Racing Honda in seventh, ahead of the best Peugeot of Teddy Clairet in eighth.

Completing the top ten were the Honda of Callejas and the Audi of Klim Gavrilov, the latter gaining the reverse-grid pole position for race two on Saturday.

Dutchmen Tom Coronel and Niels Langeveld missed out on the reversed grid and were 11^th and 12^th in their Audi and Hyundai cars respectively.

Amongst those who didn’t progress to Q2, after Leonov in 13^th, Martin Ryba was 14^th in his Brutal Fish Honda, the Slovakian having struggled early on in qualifying to find the balance in his car, resulting in an early spin.

Despite having been in the top ten in both of Thursday’s practice sessions, Jimmy Clairet couldn’t replicate the same form in qualifying and was 15^th.

Dušan Borković will be disappointed to have only managed 16^th in his Comtoyou Racing Audi, the Serbian being the slowest of the RS3 drivers at a circuit which has favoured the car in the past.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 17:30 BST (18:30 CEST).

Q2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	44		Felice JELMINI	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	4	2:30.152	–
2	250		Mehdi BENNANI	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	4	2:30.571	0.419
3	70		Mat’o HOMOLA	Janík Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	4	2:30.765	0.613
4	96		Mikel AZCONA	Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	4	2:30.852	0.700
5	25		Sami TAOUFIK	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	4	2:30.961	0.809
6	8		Nicolas BAERT	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	4	2:31.131	0.979
7	72		Franco GIROLAMI	PSS Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	4	2:31.285	1.133
8	20		Teddy CLAIRET	Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	4	2:31.394	1.242
9	26		Isidro CALLEJAS	Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	4	2:31.479	1.327
10	14		Klim GAVRILOV	VRC-Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	4	2:31.535	1.383
11	32		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	4	2:31.651	1.499
12	10		Niels LANGEVELD	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	4	2:31.664	1.512

Q1 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	250		Mehdi BENNANI	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	7	2:30.902	–
2	25		Sami TAOUFIK	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	7	2:30.909	0.007
3	44		Felice JELMINI	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	5	2:31.178	0.276
4	14		Klim GAVRILOV	VRC-Team	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	7	2:31.372	0.470
5	26		Isidro CALLEJAS	Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	7	2:31.388	0.486
6	20		Teddy CLAIRET	Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	7	2:31.444	0.542
7	96		Mikel AZCONA	Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	7	2:31.492	0.590
8	70		Mat’o HOMOLA	Janík Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	7	2:31.588	0.686
9	72		Franco GIROLAMI	PSS Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	3	2:31.665	0.763
10	32		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	7	2:31.738	0.836
11	10		Niels LANGEVELD	Sébastien Loeb Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	6	2:31.947	1.045
12	8		Nicolas BAERT	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	8	2:32.047	1.145
13	16		Evgenii LEONOV	Volcano Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	7	2:32.204	1.302
14	17		Martin RYBA	Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	7	2:32.308	1.406
15	21		Jimmy CLAIRET	Team Clairet Sport	Peugeot 308 TCR	5	2:32.325	1.423
16	162		Dušan BORKOVIĆ	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	7	2:32.540	1.638
17	24		Jáchym GALÁŠ	Janík Motorsport	Hyundai i30 N TCR	7	2:32.637	1.735
18	77		Sylvain PUSSIER	Team Clairet Sport	CUPRA TCR	7	2:32.842	1.940
19	66		Gilles COLOMBANI	Team Clairet Sport	CUPRA TCR	7	2:35.354	4.452
20	62		Jack YOUNG	Brutal Fish Racing Team	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	2	No time	N/A