TCR Australia’s Ben Bargwanna claimed a sensational pole position in the TCR World Tour / TCR Australia qualifying session at Sydney Motorsport Park, with rain affecting the early running in the session.
As the field headed out for Q1, rain began to fall on the Sydney Motorsport Park circuit, creating a headache for drivers in terms of selecting tyres and getting in dry banker laps early on.
In the end, the very first laps set by drivers after their out laps turned out to be the quickest, as the intensity of the rain soon increased.
That left BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona as the driver at the top of the Q1 times, setting a lap of 1 minute 40.879 seconds in his Hyundai – some six seconds slower than the earlier dry running in practice.
By the time Q2 began, conditions had begun to improve and times were much faster, leading to a last-minute scramble for pole.
Bargwanna had been fastest of all with an effort of 1:39.5820 with two minutes left to run and improved to a 1:38.7409 just before the chequered flag flew, before MPC’s Will Brown pipped him in the closing seconds with a time of 1:38.5954.
However, Bargwanna still had time to do one more lap, and the Peugeot driver duly went almost a second faster, ending up with a lap of 1:37.8033 to claim a second pole in TCR Australia by 0.7921 seconds.
Brown was thus second, with Azcona claiming third on the grid after improving late in the Q2 session to end up just over a second from pole.
TCR Australia points leader Bailey Sweeny was fourth fastest, as the local racers out-performed their TCR World Tour rivals in the changeable conditions.
Comtoyou Racing’s Rob Huff had been quickest with two minutes to go, but the Audi racer ultimately ended the session in fifth, some 3.87 seconds from pole.
The leading Cyan Racing Lynk & Co was that of Ma Qing Hua in sixth, after the rest of his team-mates failed to make the cut to get into Q2.
HMO Customer Racing’s Josh Buchan was seventh, ahead of fellow Hyundai Elantra racer Norbert Michelisz in eighth in his BRC Racing-prepared car.
The top ten was completed by the Peugeot of Jimmy Clairet and the independent Audi of Zac Soutar.
Just missing out on Q2, but nonetheless putting in a season-best effort, was Iain McDougall in his first-generation Audi in 11th, ahead of reigning champion Tony D’Alberto in 12th, the Wall Racing driver getting to grips with his new Honda Civic Type-R FL5.
Despite topping both practice sessions, the conditions caught out Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk, who was just 15th and over five seconds off the Q1 pace.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 20:40 local time (10:40 CET, 09:40 GMT) on Friday.
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 71 |  |
Ben BARGWANNA | Burson Auto Parts Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 4 | 1:37.803 | – |
| 2 | 9 | |
Will BROWN | MPC Team LIQUI MOLY | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 4 | 1:38.595 | 0.792 |
| 3 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 1:38.845 | 1.041 |
| 4 | 130 | |
Bailey SWEENY | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 1:39.358 | 1.555 |
| 5 | 179 |  |
Rob HUFF | Audi Sport Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 1:41.674 | 3.871 |
| 6 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 5 | 1:42.110 | 4.307 |
| 7 | 30 | |
Josh BUCHAN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 1:43.199 | 5.396 |
| 8 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 1:43.217 | 5.414 |
| 9 | 4 |  |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Hangcha Forklifts | Peugeot 308 TCR | 3 | 1:44.812 | 7.008 |
| 10 | 110 | |
Zac SOUTAR | Team Soutar Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 3 | 1:45.096 | 7.292 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 196 | |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:40.879 | – |
| 2 | 9 | |
Will BROWN | MPC Team LIQUI MOLY | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 2 | 1:41.729 | 0.849 |
| 3 | 155 | |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 5 | 1:41.865 | 0.986 |
| 4 | 130 | |
Bailey SWEENY | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 2 | 1:42.277 | 1.398 |
| 5 | 105 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:42.923 | 2.043 |
| 6 | 179 | |
Rob HUFF | Audi Sport Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 6 | 1:43.372 | 2.492 |
| 7 | 110 | |
Zac SOUTAR | Team Soutar Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 4 | 1:43.549 | 2.670 |
| 8 | 30 | |
Josh BUCHAN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:43.560 | 2.681 |
| 9 | 4 | |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Hangcha Forklifts | Peugeot 308 TCR | 6 | 1:44.209 | 3.330 |
| 10 | 71 | |
Ben BARGWANNA | Burson Auto Parts Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 6 | 1:44.556 | 3.677 |
| 11 | 22 | |
Iain MCDOUGALL | Challenge Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 2 | 1:45.007 | 4.128 |
| 12 | 129 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:45.221 | 4.342 |
| 13 | 168 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 5 | 1:45.612 | 4.733 |
| 14 | 1 | |
Tony D’ALBERTO | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 7 | 1:46.164 | 5.285 |
| 15 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 6 | 1:46.257 | 5.378 |
| 16 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 5 | 1:46.848 | 5.969 |
| 17 | 18 | |
Aaron CAMERON | Team Valvoline GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 5 | 1:47.568 | 6.688 |
| 18 | 115 | |
Tom OLIPHANT | Autoglym / Ashley Seward Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 5 | 1:47.773 | 6.894 |
| 19 | 122 |  |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Audi Sport Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 1:48.741 | 7.862 |
| 20 | 74 | |
Brad HARRIS | Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 5 | 1:49.547 | 8.668 |
| 21 | 33 | |
Jordan COX | Schaeffler GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 5 | 1:50.590 | 9.710 |
| 22 | 76 | |
Will HARRIS | Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 4 | 1:51.117 | 10.238 |
| 23 | 14 | |
Lachlan MINEEFF | Purple Sector | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 2 | 1:55.928 | 15.049 |
| 24 | 41 | |
Kody GARLAND | Valvoline Racing GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |