Felipe Fernández scores third consecutive Spa-Francorchamps pole

Felipe Fernández scored his third consecutive Spa-Francorchamps pole position in the TCR Europe series, whilst championship leader Alex Ley crashed out on his first flying lap.

Fernández has only scored three outright TCR Europe pole positions, and all three have come at the iconic Belgian venue – in 2024, 2025 and now 2026.

The Spaniard had been fourth fastest in Q1, but went seven tenths of a second faster on his best Q2 effort, almost half a second quicker than Friday’s second practice pace-setter Mike Halder.

Halder, in his ALM Motorsport-run Honda, had to settle for second after Fernández subsequently went quicker on his only flying lap.

Monlau Motorsport’s Viktor Andersson was third fastest, 0.679 seconds adrift, ahead of CUPRA team-mate Marco Butti in fourth.

PMA Motorsport’s Nicolas Taylor, who had topped FP1 on Friday, was fifth as the leading Audi driver, the only other driver within a second of the pace.

Adam Shepherd was third of the Monlau trio in sixth, ahead of ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt in seventh.

Solite Indigo Racing’s Junesung Park was eighth as the leading Hyundai driver, whilst the top ten was completed by PMA Motorsport’s Nicola Baldan and BRC Racing’s Gabriele Covini, the latter claiming the reverse-grid pole position for Sunday’s second race.

Ley had crashed out at Raidillon on his first attempt, with significant damage to the left-hand side of his Hyundai. With under four hours to the start of race one, it is unclear if the car can be repaired in time.

Race one gets underway at 17:10 CEST (16:10 BST).

Q2 result

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	19		Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil	Auto Club RC2 Valles	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	3	2:26.586	–
2	7		Mike HALDER	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	4	2:27.083	0.497
3	10		Viktor ANDERSSON	Monlau Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	4	2:27.265	0.679
4	111		Marco BUTTI	Monlau Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	4	2:27.465	0.879
5	17		Nicolas TAYLOR	PMA Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	4	2:27.506	0.920
6	117		Adam SHEPHERD	Monlau Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	4	2:27.629	1.043
7	27		Ruben VOLT	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	4	2:27.882	1.296
8	97		Junesung PARK	Solite Indigo Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	3	2:27.995	1.409
9	8		Nicola BALDAN	PMA Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	4	2:28.034	1.448
10	12		Gabriele COVINI	BRC Racing Team	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	4	2:28.102	1.516
11	87		Junui PARK	Solite Indigo Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	4	2:28.251	1.665
12	85		Tiago PERNÍA	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	4	3:25.000	58.414

Q1 result

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	27		Ruben VOLT	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	9	2:26.908	–
2	10		Viktor ANDERSSON	Monlau Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	9	2:26.936	0.028
3	7		Mike HALDER	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	9	2:26.983	0.075
4	19		Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil	Auto Club RC2 Valles	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	8	2:27.261	0.353
5	117		Adam SHEPHERD	Monlau Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	9	2:27.543	0.635
6	17		Nicolas TAYLOR	PMA Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	5	2:27.601	0.693
7	111		Marco BUTTI	Monlau Motorsport	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	9	2:27.637	0.729
8	87		Junui PARK	Solite Indigo Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	9	2:27.825	0.917
9	8		Nicola BALDAN	PMA Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	6	2:27.839	0.931
10	85		Tiago PERNÍA	Squadra Martino	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	8	2:27.922	1.014
11	97		Junesung PARK	Solite Indigo Racing	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	8	2:27.967	1.059
12	12		Gabriele COVINI	BRC Racing Team	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	9	2:27.975	1.067
13	18		Michael MARKUSSEN	Auto Club RC2 Valles	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	7	2:28.046	1.138
14	74		Victor WEYRICH	Herrero Racing	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	9	2:28.109	1.201
15	69		Max HART	ALM Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	10	2:28.605	1.697
16	22		Giacomo PRANDELLI	Aikoa Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	9	2:28.859	1.951
17	34		Stian PAULSEN	Stian Paulsen Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	9	2:29.028	2.120
18	37		Victor CHAN Chun Leung	Auto Club RC2 Valles	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	8	2:29.308	2.400
19	33		Santiago CONCEPCIÓN	Aikoa Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	8	2:29.335	2.427
20	9		Tom CHIAPPE	SP Compétition	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	9	2:29.448	2.540
21	11		Jac CONSTABLE	JH Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	9	2:31.529	4.621
22	73		Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil	Auto Club RC2 Valles	Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR	8	2:31.874	4.966
23	72		Sandro PELATTI	SP Compétition	CUPRA Leon VZ TCR	9	2:32.080	5.172
24	76		Alex LEY	BRC Racing Team	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	1	No time	N/A
25	24		Julien BRICHÉ	JSB Compétition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	–	Withdrawn	N/A
26	145		Raphaël FOURNIER	JSB Compétition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	–	Withdrawn	N/A