Comtoyou Racing’s Franco Girolami scooped the TCR Europe title in qualifying at the Circuit Barceloa-Catalunya on Saturday morning, as Jack Young scored a dominant pole position.
Halder Motorsport’s Young was the benchmark driver throughout the fog-delayed session, posting a lap time of 1 minute 53.942 seconds in Q1 after almost nine minutes of the session.
The Northern Irishman then twice improved his lap time on following laps, ending up with a 1:53.484 to end the opening part of qualifying a huge seventh tenths of a second clear of anyone else.
The Honda racer continued his strong form into Q2, posting a lap of 1:53.909 on his first flying lap to secure the top spot and his first pole of the season.
Comtoyou Racing’s Tom Coronel was second, four tenths back, having been Young’s closest challenger in both parts of the session as the leading Audi racer.
Volcano Motorsport’s Isidro Callejas was third fastest, six tenths back, whilst Girolami put his Audi in fourth in the all-important Q2 session.
That result was enough to give the Argentine the title, as his only other rival, Target Competition’s Josh Files, had to outscore him in qualifying – with his only chance of denying Girolami being to end the session within 80 points.
With the deficit standing at 89 points prior to the session, 40 points available in each race and ten points for pole in Q2, effectively anything less than first would ended Files’ chances.
In the end, the Brit couldn’t even out-qualify his rival, ending up in fifth, qualifying as the best Hyundai driver. However, Files will not be the top-placed Hyundai on the grid for Saturday afternoon’s opening race because he picked up a grid penalty for an engine change, dropping him to the back of the race one grid.
Series newcomer Frédéric Vervisch put his Audi in sixth, ahead of Target’s Nicola Baldan in seventh.
Janík Motorsport’s Jáchym Galáš put his Hyundai in eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by Aggressive Team Italia’s Pepe Oriola and Sébastien Loeb Racing’s John Filippi, providing the latter with the pole position for Sunday’s partially-reversed grid race.
Michelle Halder followed up her season-best qualifying result last time out at Monza with 11th on the grid for both races, just missing out on the race two pole position by 0.082 seconds, whilst her brother Mike Halder completed the Q2 runners in 12th.
Volcano Motorsport’s Klim Gavrilov was the top driver to miss out on progressing into Q2, putting his CUPRA in 13th for both races, over 1.8 seconds off the Q1 pace. He will be joined on the seventh row of the grid by fellow Russian and team-mate Evgenii Leonov in 14th.
Sergio López put his CUPRA in 15th, although the Venezuelan stopped at the end of Q1 with smoke coming from his car.
Marco Butti put his Comtoyou Audi in 16th, but like López he ended the session trackside after pulling up with a mechanical issue.
Race one is due to get underway at 14:20 CEST (13:20 BST) on Saturday afternoon and will be streamed live online via YouTube.
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 62 |  |
Jack YOUNG | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 4 | 1:53.909 | – |
| 2 | 33 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 1:54.311 | 0.402 |
| 3 | 26 |  |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 4 | 1:54.520 | 0.611 |
| 4 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 6 | 1:54.523 | 0.614 |
| 5 | 99 | |
Josh FILES | Target Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 3 | 1:54.663 | 0.754 |
| 6 | 22 |  |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 4 | 1:54.903 | 0.994 |
| 7 | 8 |  |
Nicola BALDAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:54.936 | 1.027 |
| 8 | 24 |  |
Jáchym GALÁŠ | Hyundai Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:54.938 | 1.029 |
| 9 | 74 | |
Pepe ORIOLA | Aggressive Team Italia Asd | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 1:55.043 | 1.134 |
| 10 | 27 |  |
John FILIPPI | Sébastien Loeb Racing – Bardahl Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 4 | 1:55.191 | 1.282 |
| 11 | 53 |  |
Michelle HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 4 | 1:55.273 | 1.364 |
| 12 | 7 | |
Mike HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 4 | 1:56.193 | 2.284 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 62 | |
Jack YOUNG | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 9 | 1:53.484 | – |
| 2 | 33 | |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 1:54.226 | 0.742 |
| 3 | 99 | |
Josh FILES | Target Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 7 | 1:54.377 | 0.893 |
| 4 | 72 | |
Franco GIROLAMI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 8 | 1:54.440 | 0.956 |
| 5 | 26 | |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 9 | 1:54.591 | 1.107 |
| 6 | 7 | |
Mike HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 5 | 1:54.596 | 1.112 |
| 7 | 74 | |
Pepe ORIOLA | Aggressive Team Italia Asd | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:54.933 | 1.449 |
| 8 | 27 | |
John FILIPPI | Sébastien Loeb Racing – Bardahl Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 10 | 1:54.955 | 1.471 |
| 9 | 22 | |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 8 | 1:54.984 | 1.500 |
| 10 | 24 | |
Jáchym GALÁŠ | Hyundai Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:55.126 | 1.642 |
| 11 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 1:55.286 | 1.802 |
| 12 | 53 | |
Michelle HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 9 | 1:55.318 | 1.834 |
| 13 | 14 |  |
Klim GAVRILOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 9 | 1:55.327 | 1.843 |
| 14 | 16 | |
Evgenii LEONOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 10 | 1:55.580 | 2.096 |
| 15 | 37 |  |
Sergio LÓPEZ | Auto Club RC2 Valles | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 9 | 1:55.820 | 2.336 |
| 16 | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | Élite Motorsport by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 7 | 1:55.991 | 2.507 |
| 17 | 12 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 1:56.006 | 2.522 |
| 18 | 10 | |
Alejandro GEPPERT | Teo Martín Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:56.069 | 2.585 |
| 19 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 1:56.111 | 2.627 |
| 20 | 4 |  |
Samuel SLÁDEČKA | Hyundai Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 1:56.280 | 2.796 |
| 21 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 1:56.326 | 2.842 |
| 22 | 3 | |
Giacomo GHERMANDI | Lema Racing | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 9 | 1:56.932 | 3.448 |