Monlau Motorsport’s Viktor Andersson put his CUPRA on pole position for the TCR Europe series at Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France, two tenths of a second ahead of ALM Motorsport’s Mike Halder.
Andersson had already claimed a pole at the circuit in TCR Spain earlier this year, and he has now added his first TCR Europe pole of 2026, and his first in the series since May 2023, by posting the top time in Q2 – more than a second faster than his TCR Spain time earlier in 2026.
Andersson had topped the times in Friday’s opening practice session, but earlier on Saturday the Swede was sixth quickest in Q1, before improving in Q2 to post a new lap record time of 2 minutes 10.720 seconds.
Championship leader Halder, laden with the maximum amount of compensation weight, put is Honda on the front-row of the grid alongside Andersson, whilst Monlau Motorsport’s Marco Butti was third quickest, the Spanish-run CUPRAs continuing to go well at the fast track.
PMA Motorsport’s Nicola Baldan had been quickest in Q1, but the Audi racer was fourth in the all-important Q2, at a circuit where the RS3 claimed four victories in the last four races held by TCR Europe at the circuit from 2022-2023.
Squadra Martino’s Tiago Pernía improved late in the session to take fifth in his Honda, ahead of Solite Indigo Racing’s Junui Park in sixth.
The returning Mikhail Simonov was seventh in his SP Compétition-run CUPRA, ahead of Herrero Racing’s Victor Weyrich in eighth, meaning that there were four Leons in the top eight places.
The top ten was completed by PMA Motorsport’s Nicolas Taylor and BRC Racing’s Gabriele Covini, handing the latter the reverse-grid pole position for Sunday’s second race.
Series newcomer Matéo Herrero was 11th, whilst ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt completed the Q2 dozen.
Indigo Racing’s Junesung Park just missed out on progression to Q2 by 0.049 seconds and was thus 13th, whilst 14th-placed Adam Shepherd was one of the only CUPRA drivers not to get into Q2, along with SP Compétition’s Tom Chiappe in 17th.
BRC Racing’s Alex Ley, who led the championship after the opening event more than two months ago, suffered another problematic session, the Brit having had his best lap time deleted and his second-best was only good enough for 22nd, some 2.5 seconds off the Q1 pace.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 18:15 CEST (17:15 BST) on Saturday.
Q2 result
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 4 | 2:10.720 | – |
| 2 | 7 |  |
Mike HALDER | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 2:10.940 | 0.220 |
| 3 | 111 |  |
Marco BUTTI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 4 | 2:11.121 | 0.401 |
| 4 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 4 | 2:11.169 | 0.449 |
| 5 | 85 |  |
Tiago PERNÍA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 2:11.297 | 0.577 |
| 6 | 87 |  |
Junui PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 2:11.341 | 0.621 |
| 7 | 112 |  |
Mikhail SIMONOV | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 4 | 2:11.343 | 0.623 |
| 8 | 74 |  |
Victor WEYRICH | Herrero Racing | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 4 | 2:11.377 | 0.657 |
| 9 | 17 |  |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 4 | 2:11.395 | 0.675 |
| 10 | 12 | |
Gabriele COVINI | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 2:11.430 | 0.710 |
| 11 | 29 | |
Matéo HERRERO | Herrero Racing | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 4 | 2:11.600 | 0.880 |
| 12 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 2:11.615 | 0.895 |
Q1 result
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 8 | 2:11.139 | – |
| 2 | 7 | |
Mike HALDER | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 2:11.152 | 0.013 |
| 3 | 29 | |
Matéo HERRERO | Herrero Racing | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 8 | 2:11.154 | 0.015 |
| 4 | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 8 | 2:11.187 | 0.048 |
| 5 | 17 | |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 7 | 2:11.256 | 0.117 |
| 6 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 8 | 2:11.318 | 0.179 |
| 7 | 87 | |
Junui PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 7 | 2:11.382 | 0.243 |
| 8 | 112 | |
Mikhail SIMONOV | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 7 | 2:11.383 | 0.244 |
| 9 | 85 | |
Tiago PERNÍA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 2:11.486 | 0.347 |
| 10 | 12 | |
Gabriele COVINI | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:11.577 | 0.438 |
| 11 | 74 | |
Victor WEYRICH | Herrero Racing | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 7 | 2:11.612 | 0.473 |
| 12 | 27 | |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 2:11.786 | 0.647 |
| 13 | 97 | |
Junesung PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 7 | 2:11.835 | 0.696 |
| 14 | 117 |  |
Adam SHEPHERD | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 8 | 2:11.838 | 0.699 |
| 15 | 19 |  |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 7 | 2:11.950 | 0.811 |
| 16 | 18 |  |
Michael MARKUSSEN | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 7 | 2:12.326 | 1.187 |
| 17 | 9 | |
Tom CHIAPPE | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 7 | 2:12.443 | 1.304 |
| 18 | 69 |  |
Max HART | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 2:12.669 | 1.530 |
| 19 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 7 | 2:13.069 | 1.930 |
| 20 | 22 | |
Giacomo PRANDELLI | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 7 | 2:13.079 | 1.940 |
| 21 | 37 |  |
Victor CHAN Chun Leung | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 7 | 2:13.161 | 2.022 |
| 22 | 76 | |
Alex LEY | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:13.668 | 2.529 |
| 23 | 73 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 7 | 2:14.433 | 3.294 |
| 24 | 72 | |
Sandro PELATTI | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 7 | 2:14.947 | 3.808 |