Mikel Azcona has secured back to back FIA World Touring Car Cup pole positions for CUPRA, following Rob Huff’s efforts last time out at the Hungaroring. Czech wildcard Petr Fulín, meanwhile, will start the reversed-grid opening race on Sunday from pole.
The first knockout round of qualifying arrived with slightly warmer track temperatures than the teams had faced earlier on in the day. From the first round of flying laps, Nestor Girolami shocked the paddock by going quickest of everyone with a lap time of 01:39.323 – far quicker than he or any Honda driver had managed during practice.
However, on his next attempt, Azcona then shaved two tenths of a second off of Girolami’s time to go to the top of the pile.
Everyone’s progress was then suddenly interrupted, as for the second session in a row, an Audi ground to a halt while on track. This time it was that of Gilles Magnus which required recovery, causing the red flags to be waved and the session to be paused. Unfortunately for him, the Belgian would be unable to restart qualifying due to being the cause of a stoppage, and so he will have to start both races from the back of the grid.
When Q1 got underway again, everyone was keen to improve. The biggest improver of all was Esteban Guerrieri, who jumped up from last to first in his Honda, while Nathanaël Berthon shot up to third behind Azcona in his Audi. Guerrieri was later blamed for impeding Tom Coronel in Q1, and earned himself a two-place grid penalty for the reversed-grid first race as a result.
Girolami remained fourth, while Jean-Karl Vernay rose to fifth, securing the final point paid for finishing in the top five at this stage of qualifying.
At the other end of proceedings though, the biggest news story was that Santiago Urrutia could only manage a time good enough for fifteenth. As only the top twelve progress to Q2, this meant that the second-placed man in the standings would have to start both races on Sunday from the lower end of the midfield.
On to Q2, and Norbert Michelisz was the fastest out of the blocks, becoming the first driver to break the 1 minute 39 seconds barrier with a time of 01:38.923, along with Yann Ehrlacher who also managed the feat in second place.
With just seconds left on the clock, Azcona – who had been one of the quickest drivers in practice – was in trouble, having not set a time good enough for the top five. However, on his final do-or-die attempt, the Spaniard rocketed up the order to go fastest of all. That was, until Vernay went even quicker right at the death of the session.
Along with the leading duo, Michelisz finished Q2 in third place ahead of Honda’s Guerrieri. Championship leader Ehrlacher was the final driver to make it through to the top five Q3 shootout.
Just missing out, Berthon placed sixth ahead of Thed Bjork and Yvan Muller in seventh and eighth. Girolami wound up ninth after earlier promise, though that would at least ensure a front-row grid slot in the reversed-grid opener. There would be plenty of celebrations down at the Fulin Race Academy garage though, as the Czech wildcard finished Q2 in tenth – handing him reversed-grid pole position for his home race.
Frederic Vervisch and Gabriele Tarquini, meanwhile, will start both races from eleventh and twelfth respectively.
Moving on, Vernay was first up in Q3. With just one lap to decide the top five places on the grid, the pressure was on, and the lap was somewhat scruffy. Nevertheless, the Frenchman still managed a respectable lap time of 01:39.068.
Azcona was next, and a ‘purple’ time in all four sectors ensured that he would snatch provisional pole from Vernay with a 01:38.757 lap.
Guerrieri couldn’t match the pace in sector one, but then went quicker than Azcona in sector two. Another purple time in sector three was followed up by a slightly slower sector four, resulting in a lap time of 01:38.890 – good enough to slot into second, between Azcona and Vernay.
The fourth driver to take to the circuit was Ehrlacher. Again, he was slower than Azcona in sector one, but by a much smaller margin than Guerrieri was. By sector three, the gap had come down to just seven thousandths of a second but this too would not be enough to topple Azcona. It would, however, be good enough to slot ahead of Guerrieri.
Michelisz was last to run. A purple sector in sector two ensured that he was in the conversation for pole, and by sector three he was actually marginally ahead of Azcona overall. Once again though, things swayed back in Azcona’s favour during sector four as Michelisz would fall short by just nine hundredths of a second. But with that, the Hungarian will join the Spaniard on the front row of the grid for Sunday’s feature race.
One driver who won’t be taking part though, is Zengo Motorsport’s Jordi Gené. The veteran withdrew from all sessions today and won’t take part in Sunday’s races either due to personal reasons.
Race one gets underway on Sunday at 14:15 local time (13:15 BST).
Q3 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 96 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 3 | 1:38.757 | – |
| 2 | 5 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 3 | 1:38.848 | 0.091 |
| 3 | 68 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 1:38.887 | 0.130 |
| 4 | 86 |  |
Esteban GUERRIERI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 3 | 1:38.890 | 0.133 |
| 5 | 69 | |
Jean-Karl VERNAY | Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 3 | 1:39.068 | 0.311 |
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 69 | |
Jean-Karl VERNAY | Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:38.851 | – |
| 2 | 96 | |
Mikel AZCONA | Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 5 | 1:38.856 | 0.005 |
| 3 | 5 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:38.923 | 0.072 |
| 4 | 86 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 5 | 1:38.965 | 0.114 |
| 5 | 68 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 5 | 1:38.989 | 0.138 |
| 6 | 17 | |
Nathanaël BERTHON | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 1:39.036 | 0.185 |
| 7 | 11 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 5 | 1:39.071 | 0.220 |
| 8 | 100 | |
Yvan MULLER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 5 | 1:39.088 | 0.237 |
| 9 | 29 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 5 | 1:39.096 | 0.245 |
| 10 | 222 |  |
Petr FULÍN | Petr Fulín | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 4 | 1:39.407 | 0.556 |
| 11 | 22 |  |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 1:39.810 | 0.959 |
| 12 | 3 |  |
Gabriele TARQUINI | BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:40.643 | 1.792 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 86 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 9 | 1:39.126 | – |
| 2 | 96 | |
Mikel AZCONA | Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 9 | 1:39.147 | 0.021 |
| 3 | 17 | |
Nathanaël BERTHON | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 1:39.189 | 0.063 |
| 4 | 29 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 10 | 1:39.199 | 0.073 |
| 5 | 69 | |
Jean-Karl VERNAY | Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 1:39.248 | 0.122 |
| 6 | 5 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 1:39.270 | 0.144 |
| 7 | 68 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 11 | 1:39.281 | 0.155 |
| 8 | 222 | |
Petr FULÍN | Petr Fulín | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 9 | 1:39.298 | 0.172 |
| 9 | 100 | |
Yvan MULLER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 10 | 1:39.316 | 0.190 |
| 10 | 11 | |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 10 | 1:39.339 | 0.213 |
| 11 | 22 | |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 1:39.467 | 0.341 |
| 12 | 3 | |
Gabriele TARQUINI | BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 1:39.512 | 0.386 |
| 13 | 79 |  |
Rob HUFF | Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 11 | 1:39.522 | 0.396 |
| 14 | 32 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 1:39.543 | 0.417 |
| 15 | 12 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 11 | 1:39.557 | 0.431 |
| 16 | 18 |  |
Tiago MONTEIRO | ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 9 | 1:39.587 | 0.461 |
| 17 | 9 | |
Attila TASSI | ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 10 | 1:39.647 | 0.521 |
| 18 | 8 |  |
Luca ENGSTLER | Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 1:39.831 | 0.705 |
| 19 | 55 | |
Bence BOLDIZS | Zengő Motorsport Drivers’ Academy | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 10 | 1:40.580 | 1.454 |
| 20 | 16 | |
Gilles MAGNUS | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | No time | N/A |