Hyundai’s Norbert Michelisz took pole position for the opening FIA TCR World Tour race of the season in Vallelunga, a quarter of a second ahead of Cyan Racing Lynk & Co’s Yann Ehrlacher.
Ehrlacher had earlier been quickest in the first part of qualifying with a lap of 1 minute 39.584 seconds, but in Q2 it was Michelisz who topped the times, the reigning champion improving his lap by half a second to go comfortably quicker than the Frenchman.
Michelisz’s first lap had been two tenths slower than his Q1 time, good enough for fourth initially, but after a short pitstop to switch the tyres around the Hungarian then edged out Ehrlacher by 0.249 seconds.
GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri put his Honda in third, a further tenth back, and the Argentine will share the second row of the grid for the opening race with the second BRC Racing-run Hyundai of Mikel Azcona, who was four tenths off his team-mate.
Thed Björk was the next Lynk & Co driver in fifth, with GOAT Racing’s Marco Butti sixth, six and a half tenths from pole.
Ma Qing Hua was seventh, ahead of the leading Audi of Volcano Motorsport’s John Filippi in eighth.
Completing the top ten and bagging the front row of the grid for the partially reversed second race were Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia and Hyundai’s Néstor Girolami, the latter securing pole with tenth.
That meant that MM Motorsport’s Jacopo Cimenes missed out on a reverse-grid pole on his TCR début, the Honda driver having to settle for 11th, ahead of Volcano’s Sami Taoufik in 12th, 1.8 seconds off Michelisz.
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:39.249 | – |
| 2 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 5 | 1:39.496 | 0.247 |
| 3 | 186 |  |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:39.586 | 0.337 |
| 4 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:39.683 | 0.434 |
| 5 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 5 | 1:39.739 | 0.490 |
| 6 | 199 |  |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 3 | 1:39.899 | 0.650 |
| 7 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 4 | 1:39.930 | 0.681 |
| 8 | 127 | |
John FILIPPI | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 4 | 1:40.126 | 0.877 |
| 9 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 4 | 1:40.134 | 0.885 |
| 10 | 129 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:40.287 | 1.038 |
| 11 | 82 | |
Jacopo CIMENES | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:40.617 | 1.368 |
| 12 | 212 |  |
Sami TAOUFIK | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 6 | 1:41.083 | 1.834 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 168 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 7 | 1:39.584 | – |
| 2 | 186 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 1:39.615 | 0.031 |
| 3 | 199 | |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 7 | 1:39.663 | 0.079 |
| 4 | 127 | |
John FILIPPI | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 7 | 1:39.694 | 0.110 |
| 5 | 105 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:39.743 | 0.159 |
| 6 | 196 | |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:39.806 | 0.222 |
| 7 | 111 | |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 8 | 1:39.835 | 0.251 |
| 8 | 112 | |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 7 | 1:40.072 | 0.488 |
| 9 | 155 | |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 6 | 1:40.171 | 0.587 |
| 10 | 212 | |
Sami TAOUFIK | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 1:40.181 | 0.597 |
| 11 | 129 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:40.253 | 0.669 |
| 12 | 82 | |
Jacopo CIMENES | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 1:40.819 | 1.235 |
| 13 | 41 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 1:41.840 | 2.256 |
| 14 | 1 | |
Sandro PELATTI | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 1:42.378 | 2.794 |
| 15 | 15 | |
Filippo BARBERI | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 1:43.224 | 3.640 |
| 16 | 5 |  |
Demir ERÖGE | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 1:43.572 | 3.988 |
| 17 | 77 |  |
Philipp MATTERSDORFER | Duller Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 9 | 1:44.319 | 4.735 |
| 18 | 39 |  |
Tony VERHULST | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 8 | 1:44.378 | 4.794 |
| 19 | 4 | |
Giulio VALENTINI | GRT Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 1:44.792 | 5.208 |
| 20 | 34 | |
Ramazan KAYA | BF Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 1:44.883 | 5.299 |