Photo: ETCC Media

Kris Richard grabs pole and then crashes out in France

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Rikli Motorsport’s Kris Richard has claimed his first pole position of the 2016 European Touring Car Cup season at Magny-Cours in France, outpacing the SEAT León TCR of Petr Fulín by just a tenth of a second in a close qualifying session, in which the Swiss driver then crashed out after 15 minutes.

Fulín set the first target of 1:50.938 in his Krenek Motorsport SEAT, but was soon bettered by Richard in the Rikli Honda Civic TCR, with the Swiss driving setting down a time of 1:50.730 to take away provisional pole position from the Czech driver.

Wild card Pierre-Etienne Chaumat then went second fastest in his JSB Competition SEAT León Cup Racer and split the two title contenders.

Richard and Fulín both improved on their second run, with Richard setting a time of 1:50.067 and put pole position out of reach, while Fulín was able to snatch back second position with a time of 1:50.172, just 0.105 behind the Swiss Honda driver, as the Swiss driver then subsequently crashed out, with the yellow flags out as his car was recovered.

Fulín could find no more pace in the SEAT as he returned to the track however and had to settle for second, while Chaumat will start on the second row on his ETCC debut ahead of the other 2015-specification SEAT of Norbert Nagy.

Fulín’s team-mate Christjohannes Schreiber qualified fifth, ahead of Lema Racing SEAT driver Fabio Mota.

Richard’s team-mate Peter Rikli lacked pace in the session and qualified down in seventh, almost two seconds off the pace, with ASK Lein Racing’s Mladen Laslusic eighth and the last of the Super 2000 Trophy TCN2 class runners.

Tomaz Koreny claimed pole position in the Super 1600 Cup class in his Ravenol Team Ford Fiesta, two-tenths of a second clear of Kevin Hilgenhövel’s ETH Peugeot 207 Sport, with points leader Niklas Mackschin third in his Ravenol Ford.

Richard’s pole position sees him extend his points lead over Fulín in the Super 2000 Trophy class to three points, with Race 1 taking place at 10:50 CET on Sunday.