Championship contender Franco Girolami held off Jack Young to take pole position for race one in the TCR Europe series at Monza.
Girolami, who currently sits second in the title standings going into this weekend behind Mikel Azcona, topped Q2 on Saturday morning just 0.010 seconds faster than Young with a time of 1 minute 57.073.
The pair had also been the pacesetters in Q1, however it was the Brutal Fish Racing driver who ended the first session fastest, with the pair having earlier been split by just 0.005 seconds at the top of the timesheets.
Behind the leading duo in Q2 was Felice Jelmini in the first of the Sebastien Loeb Racing Hyundai Elantras, with the Italian driver moving up the grid in his final run of the session and he ended the session a further quarter of a second behind Young to take third on the grid.
Lining up fourth for race one of the weekend is Tom Coronel in the ComToYou Racing Audi after the Dutch driver managed a time of 1 minute 57.771, with pole sitter at the Nurburgring last time out Isidro Callejas set to start race one in Italy in fifth in the second Brutal Fish Racing Team Honda.
Sixth for race one will be Dušan Borković after the Serbian was another late mover up the grid after improving his position on his final run of the session, while championship leader Mikel Azcona – who could mathematically win his second TCR Europe title this weekend – could only manage seventh quickest for race one and was over eight tenths of a second slower than pole sitter Girolami.
Jimmy Clairet was eighth quickest and over three tenths slower than Azcona ahead, while FP2 pacesetter Mat’o Homola took ninth in Q2.
Tenth fastest and therefore lining up on pole for Sunday’s reverse grid race two will be Nicolas Baert, with the ComToYou Racing man comfortably quicker than both Jáchym Galáš and series debutant Bartosz Groszek – the Polish driver will line up for both races in Q2 after impressively making it through the opening section of qualifying in the Horňak-Aditis Racing Team Audi.
Baert had earlier set a quicker time of 1 minute 58.107 however it was deleted due to track limit infringements that means he was dropped to tenth on the grid for race one.
Q1 had also earlier been red flagged with just a few seconds remaining due to Galáš, who did return to the track for Q2, appearing to stop in the opening sector of the Italian circuit on his final run.
Martin Ryba missed out on Q2 by less than two tenths of a second and will line up 13th as a result, while Teddy Clairet and Sami Taoufik completed the top 15 positions in qualifying in Italy.
Race one at Monza is set to get underway at 13:05 CEST (12:05 BST).
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 5 | 1:57.073 | – |
| 2 | 62 |  |
Jack YOUNG | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 5 | 1:57.083 | 0.010 |
| 3 | 44 |  |
Felice JELMINI | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 6 | 1:57.333 | 0.260 |
| 4 | 32 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 1:57.771 | 0.698 |
| 5 | 26 |  |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 5 | 1:57.793 | 0.720 |
| 6 | 162 |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 1:57.865 | 0.792 |
| 7 | 96 | |
Mikel AZCONA | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 5 | 1:57.947 | 0.874 |
| 8 | 21 |  |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 6 | 1:58.265 | 1.192 |
| 9 | 70 |  |
Mat’o HOMOLA | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:58.270 | 1.197 |
| 10 | 8 |  |
Nicolas BAERT | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 1:58.316 | 1.243 |
| 11 | 24 | |
Jáchym GALÁŠ | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:59.338 | 2.265 |
| 12 | 97 |  |
Bartosz GROSZEK | Horňak-Aditis Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 1:59.805 | 2.732 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 62 | |
Jack YOUNG | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 7 | 1:57.548 | – |
| 2 | 72 | |
Franco GIROLAMI | PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 7 | 1:57.553 | 0.005 |
| 3 | 32 | |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 1:57.861 | 0.313 |
| 4 | 96 | |
Mikel AZCONA | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 9 | 1:58.026 | 0.478 |
| 5 | 21 | |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 8 | 1:58.194 | 0.646 |
| 6 | 26 | |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 7 | 1:58.464 | 0.916 |
| 7 | 70 | |
Mat’o HOMOLA | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:58.540 | 0.992 |
| 8 | 97 | |
Bartosz GROSZEK | Horňak-Aditis Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 1:58.637 | 1.089 |
| 9 | 24 | |
Jáchym GALÁŠ | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:58.670 | 1.122 |
| 10 | 44 | |
Felice JELMINI | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:58.726 | 1.178 |
| 11 | 8 | |
Nicolas BAERT | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 7 | 1:58.842 | 1.294 |
| 12 | 162 | |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 1:58.857 | 1.309 |
| 13 | 17 | |
Martin RYBA | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 7 | 1:59.035 | 1.487 |
| 14 | 20 | |
Teddy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 8 | 1:59.048 | 1.500 |
| 15 | 25 |  |
Sami TAOUFIK | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:59.050 | 1.502 |
| 16 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 7 | 1:59.056 | 1.508 |
| 17 | 14 |  |
Klim GAVRILOV | VRC-Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 1:59.213 | 1.665 |
| 18 | 16 | |
Evgenii LEONOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 1:59.240 | 1.692 |
| 19 | 10 | |
Niels LANGEVELD | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:59.338 | 1.790 |
| 20 | 250 | |
Mehdi BENNANI | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:59.344 | 1.796 |
| 21 | 77 | |
Sylvain PUSSIER | Team Clairet Sport | CUPRA TCR | 9 | 1:59.518 | 1.970 |
| 22 | 101 |  |
Sergio LÓPEZ | RC2 Junior Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 2:00.336 | 2.788 |
| 23 | 5 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ | RC2 Junior Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 7 | 2:00.504 | 2.956 |
| 24 | 66 | |
Gilles COLOMBANI | Team Clairet Sport | CUPRA TCR | 9 | 2:00.572 | 3.024 |
| 25 | 81 | |
Damiano REDUZZI | Trico WRT | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 2:00.861 | 3.313 |
| 26 | 53 | |
Lukas STOLARCZYK | BTC Maszyny | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 2:01.227 | 3.679 |
| 27 | 11 |  |
Gustav BIRCH | Brian Madsen Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 9 | 2:01.854 | 4.306 |
| 28 | 38 |  |
Petr ČÍŽEK | Horňak-Aditis Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 2:02.514 | 4.966 |