TCR Australia points leader Tony D’Alberto secured his first pole position of the season in qualifying at the Queensland Raceway, as Honda locked out the front row with independent Civic driver Zac Soutar in second.
Soutar was just 0.113 seconds behind Wall Racing’s D’Alberto, who set the benchmark of 1 minute 12.5222 seconds, in an incredibly close qualifying session, which saw the entire field separated by less than a second in the first part of the session, which had also been topped by D’Alberto.
Whilst it is the second pole of D’Alberto’s career in TCR Australia, second on the grid marks the best-ever qualifying performance for Soutar, who has already claimed a win this season.
2019 champion Will Brown was third quickest in the leading Audi, also within two tenths of D’Alberto’s time, ahead of the leading Hyundai of HMO Customer Racing’s Bailey Sweeny in fourth.
Jay Hanson put his newer specification Audi in fifth, just under three tenths off the pace, ahead of HMO’s Nathan Morcom in sixth and the independent Hyundai of Luke King in seventh.
Aaron Cameron was the best of the Peugeot drivers in eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by fellow Peugeot racer Ben Bargwanna and Michael Caruos’s Alfa Romeo Giulietta.
Lachlan Mineeff, racing an Audi RS3 LMS this weekend for the first time, was the top driver to miss out on progressing beyond Q1, qualifying in 11th, sixth tenths off the Q1 pace.
Several big names failed to move out of Q1, including HMO’s Josh Buchan, who is third in the drivers’ standings and was on pole last time out, qualifying in 12th, and Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Dylan O’Keeffe, who is second in the standings and was just 15th in his Peugeot.
GRM’s Jordan Cox, fourth in the standings, also struggled for pace and was just one place better than O’Keeffe in 15th.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 16:15 AEST (07:15 BST, 08:15 CEST) and will be broadcast on Stan Sport (Australia) and Motorsport.tv (international).
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 50 |  |
Tony D’ALBERTO | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 1:12.522 | – |
| 2 | 110 | |
Zac SOUTAR | Team Soutar Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 1:12.635 | 0.113 |
| 3 | 999 | |
Will BROWN | MPC Team Liqui Moly | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 1:12.684 | 0.161 |
| 4 | 130 | |
Bailey SWEENY | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:12.787 | 0.264 |
| 5 | 9 | |
Jay HANSON | AWC MPC Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 7 | 1:12.808 | 0.285 |
| 6 | 11 | |
Nathan MORCOM | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | 1:13.066 | 0.543 |
| 7 | 2 | |
Luke KING | MOUTAI / Zip Pay | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 1:13.226 | 0.704 |
| 8 | 18 | |
Aaron CAMERON | Team Valvoline GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 5 | 1:13.228 | 0.705 |
| 9 | 71 | |
Ben BARGWANNA | Burson Auto Parts Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 8 | 1:13.322 | 0.799 |
| 10 | 10 | |
Michael CARUSO | Ashley Seward Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 4 | 1:13.535 | 1.013 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 50 | |
Tony D’ALBERTO | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 10 | 1:12.796 | – |
| 2 | 999 | |
Will BROWN | MPC Team Liqui Moly | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 1:12.858 | 0.062 |
| 3 | 110 | |
Zac SOUTAR | Team Soutar Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 10 | 1:12.909 | 0.113 |
| 4 | 9 | |
Jay HANSON | AWC MPC Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 1:13.158 | 0.362 |
| 5 | 11 | |
Nathan MORCOM | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:13.192 | 0.395 |
| 6 | 130 | |
Bailey SWEENY | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 1:13.200 | 0.404 |
| 7 | 18 | |
Aaron CAMERON | Team Valvoline GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 9 | 1:13.292 | 0.496 |
| 8 | 2 | |
Luke KING | MOUTAI / Zip Pay | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:13.353 | 0.556 |
| 9 | 71 | |
Ben BARGWANNA | Burson Auto Parts Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 1:13.355 | 0.559 |
| 10 | 10 | |
Michael CARUSO | Ashley Seward Motorsport | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 10 | 1:13.401 | 0.604 |
| 11 | 14 | |
Lachlan MINEEFF | Purple Sector | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 1:13.418 | 0.621 |
| 12 | 30 | |
Josh BUCHAN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 1:13.435 | 0.639 |
| 13 | 41 | |
Kody GARLAND | Valvoline Racing GRM | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 10 | 1:13.536 | 0.740 |
| 14 | 15 | |
Michael CLEMENTE | Michael Clemente Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 10 | 1:13.574 | 0.778 |
| 15 | 8 | |
Dylan O’KEEFFE | Schaeffler GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 1:13.586 | 0.790 |
| 16 | 33 | |
Jordan COX | Swyftx GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 1:13.595 | 0.799 |
| 17 | 34 | |
James MOFFAT | LCMT+ Racing GRM | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 9 | 1:13.690 | 0.893 |
| 18 | 22 | |
Iain MCDOUGALL | Melbourne Performance Centre | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 1:13.793 | 0.997 |