Monlau Motorsport’s Marco Butti scored his first pole position of the TCR Europe season in qualifying at the Hungaroring, beating ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt by just 0.064 seconds.
Butti was never headed during the all-important Q2 session, initially lapping in 1 minute 51.993 seconds, which would also have been good enough for pole, before the CUPRA driver improved to a 1:51.954 lap on his second attempt.
Volt was left as the leading Honda, sharing the front row of the grid with Butti, whilst RC2 Racing’s Felipe Fernández was third in his Honda, just under two tenths adrift.
Squadra Martino’s Tiago Pernía put in a strong effort to qualify in fourth in his Honda, the Argentine ahead of BRC Racing duo Alex Ley and Gabriele Covini, who will share the third row of the grid in their Hyundais.
ALM Motorsport’s Mike Halder set the pace in Q1 but the Honda driver could only manage seventh in Q2, over half a second off the pace, with the German sharing the fourth row of the grid with Monlau Motorsport’s Viktor Andersson, who put his CUPRA in eighth.
The top ten was completed by Solite Indigo Racing’s Junui Park and RC2 Racing’s Victor Chan, giving the latter the reverse-grid pole position in the Hong Kong driver’s best qualifying effort to-date since joining the series at the start of the season.
That meant PMA Motorsport’s Nicolas Taylor missed out on the reverse grid and qualified his Audi uncharacteristically low in 11th, with Monlau Motorsport’s Adam Shepherd completing the Q2 runners.
ALM Motorsport’s Max Hart missed out on Q2 entirely and was 13th in his ALM-run Honda, ahead of Aikoa Racing’s Giacomo Prandelli in 14th.
Also qualifying unusually down the field was PMA’s Nicola Baldam, who could only manage 15th in his Audi.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 17:25 CEST (16:25 BST).
Q2 Result
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 111 |  |
Marco BUTTI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 5 | 1:51.954 | – |
| 2 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:52.018 | 0.064 |
| 3 | 19 |  |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:52.136 | 0.182 |
| 4 | 85 |  |
Tiago PERNÍA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:52.290 | 0.336 |
| 5 | 76 |  |
Alex LEY | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:52.369 | 0.415 |
| 6 | 12 | |
Gabriele COVINI | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:52.464 | 0.510 |
| 7 | 7 |  |
Mike HALDER | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 3 | 1:52.507 | 0.553 |
| 8 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 5 | 1:52.620 | 0.666 |
| 9 | 87 |  |
Junui PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 1:52.706 | 0.752 |
| 10 | 37 |  |
Victor CHAN Chun Leung | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:52.823 | 0.869 |
| 11 | 17 |  |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 4 | 1:52.866 | 0.912 |
| 12 | 117 | |
Adam SHEPHERD | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 5 | 1:52.992 | 1.038 |
Q1 Result
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 7 | |
Mike HALDER | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 7 | 1:51.799 | – |
| 2 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:51.843 | 0.044 |
| 3 | 27 | |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 1:52.018 | 0.219 |
| 4 | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 9 | 1:52.018 | 0.219 |
| 5 | 37 | |
Victor CHAN Chun Leung | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:52.285 | 0.486 |
| 6 | 87 | |
Junui PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:52.429 | 0.630 |
| 7 | 85 | |
Tiago PERNÍA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 1:52.446 | 0.647 |
| 8 | 117 | |
Adam SHEPHERD | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 10 | 1:52.486 | 0.687 |
| 9 | 12 | |
Gabriele COVINI | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:52.524 | 0.725 |
| 10 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 9 | 1:52.691 | 0.892 |
| 11 | 76 | |
Alex LEY | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:52.735 | 0.936 |
| 12 | 17 | |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 7 | 1:52.806 | 1.007 |
| 13 | 69 |  |
Max HART | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 1:53.097 | 1.298 |
| 14 | 22 | |
Giacomo PRANDELLI | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 1:53.228 | 1.429 |
| 15 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 8 | 1:53.248 | 1.449 |
| 16 | 97 | |
Junesung PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:53.529 | 1.730 |
| 17 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:53.771 | 1.972 |
| 18 | 73 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:54.166 | 2.367 |
| 19 | 46 |  |
János CSIK | Speed Technika | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:54.388 | 2.589 |
| 20 | 72 | |
Sandro PELATTI | SP Compétition | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 10 | 1:54.563 | 2.764 |