Nathanaël Berthon bags final WTCR pole as Mikel Azcona seals maiden title

Comtoyou Racing’s Nathanaël Berthon scored his first FIA World Touring Car Cup pole position of the season in Jeddah, as Hyundai’s Mikel Azcona secured the 2022 drivers’ title by qualifying in third.

Berthon was the last to hit the track in Q3, and the Comtoyou Racing Audi driver, who had earlier set the benchmark in Q2, duly delivered, posting a lap of 1 minute 16.362 seconds to edge out Hyundai’s Norbert Michelisz by over a tenth of a second.

Michelisz had just minutes earlier pipped BRC Racing team-mate Azcona to the top time by less than half a tenth of a second, but the Hungarian ultimately had to settle for second and a fron row start for Sunday’s opening race.

But the talk of the session was all about Azcona, who put his Elantra in third. The Spaniard eked out his points advantage over Néstor Girolami by a further three points in the process, giving him an unassailable lead and with it the coveted last-ever WTCR title.

Comtoyou Racing’s Tom Coronel had been the first out in the session, ultimately putting his Audi in fourth, with team-mate Gilles Magnus a further tenth back in fifth.

Wildcard racer Franco Girolami narrowly missed out on progressing into Q2, instead the Argentine put his Comtoyou Audi in sixth, ahead of the third Hyundai of Nicky Catsburg in seventh.

Münnich Motorsport’s Esteban Guerrieri was ultimately the top Honda in eighth, with the Civics still struggling for pace as they hauled the most weight around the Saudi Arabian street circuit.

The top ten was completed by Comtoyou’s Viktor Davidovski and Team Engstler’s Attila Tassi, giving the latter the pole position for the partially-reversed race two grid, with Macedonian racer Davidovski alongside.

Zengő Motorsport’s Rob Huff was 11^th, missing out on the pole by virtue of having posted his lap time after Tassi as the two drivers posted identical times.

Néstor Girolami, Acona’s only title rival, had a dismal qualifying, ending up in 12^th some seven tenths off the pace. The Münnich driver even failed to make it back to the pits after his final Q2 effort, having to pull off the circuit and then find out that his title hopes had ended even before the Q3 session.

Dániel Nagy was 13^th in his Zengő CUPRA, less than a tenth from progression, ahead of Saudi wildcard entry Ahmed Bin Khanen in his Audi in 14^th.

Tiago Monteiro continued to be the slowest driver in the field, the Team Engstler Honda racer the only driver unable to get within a second of the pace in 15^th.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 16:40 GMT on Sunday (19:40 local time, 17:40 CET).

Q3 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	17		Nathanaël BERTHON	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	3	1:16.362	–
2	5		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	3	1:16.469	0.107
3	96		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	3	1:16.512	0.150
4	33		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	3	1:16.564	0.202
5	16		Gilles MAGNUS	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	3	1:16.681	0.319

Q2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	17		Nathanaël BERTHON	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	1:16.199	–
2	96		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	7	1:16.310	0.111
3	16		Gilles MAGNUS	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	7	1:16.325	0.126
4	5		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	7	1:16.334	0.135
5	33		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	9	1:16.379	0.180
6	72		Franco GIROLAMI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	7	1:16.445	0.246
7	88		Nicky CATSBURG	BRC Hyundai N Racing Team	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	8	1:16.589	0.390
8	86		Esteban GUERRIERI	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	7	1:16.740	0.541
9	110		Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	7	1:16.752	0.553
10	9		Attila TASSI	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	9	1:16.767	0.568
11	79		Rob HUFF	Zengő Motorsport Services Kft	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	7	1:16.767	0.568
12	29		Néstor GIROLAMI	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	8	1:16.914	0.715

Q1 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	96		Mikel AZCONA	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	13	1:16.423	–
2	16		Gilles MAGNUS	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	13	1:16.514	0.091
3	72		Franco GIROLAMI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	13	1:16.519	0.096
4	17		Nathanaël BERTHON	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	13	1:16.549	0.126
5	88		Nicky CATSBURG	BRC Hyundai N Racing Team	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	14	1:16.554	0.131
6	33		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	1:16.565	0.142
7	5		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	14	1:16.589	0.166
8	86		Esteban GUERRIERI	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	15	1:16.728	0.305
9	110		Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	13	1:16.771	0.348
10	29		Néstor GIROLAMI	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	13	1:16.834	0.411
11	79		Rob HUFF	Zengő Motorsport Services Kft	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	17	1:16.912	0.489
12	9		Attila TASSI	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	17	1:16.978	0.555
13	99		Dániel NAGY	Zengő Motorsport Services Kft	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	17	1:17.055	0.632
14	24		Ahmed Khaled BIN KHANEN	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	17	1:17.309	0.886
15	18		Tiago MONTEIRO	Liqui Moly Team Engstler	Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR	16	1:17.708	1.285