Alexandr Artemyev claims first ETCC pole position in Hungary

Kazakh driver Alexandr Artemyev claimed his first pole position in the European Touring Car Cup, leading a SEAT 1-2-3, with Hungarian Zengo pair Zsolt Szabo and Norbert Nagy behind him.

Artemyev, who missed the opening round at Monza and is competing on a race-by-race basis, set the fastest lap in the 30-minute qualifying session in his Baporo Motorsport-run SEAT León TCR, exactly four-tenths of a second faster than Szabo.

In fourth position was the first of the Rikli Motorsport Hondas, with points leader Christjohannes Schreiber seven-tenths off the pace in his Civic TCN2.

Schreiber was followed by Macedonia’s Igor Stefanovski in his SEAT León, with Andreas Pfister sixth quickest in the DSQ-equipped León Cup Racer.

Plamen Kralev, who was fastest in the wet free practice session, was seventh in his Kraf Racing Audi RS 3 LMS in qualifying, ahead of Peter Rikli’s Honda, Fabio Mota’s LEIN SEAT and Petr Fulín’s Krenek SEAT.

Both Mota and Fulín lost their fastest laps after cutting the circuit at Turn 4, and will have work to do on Sunday, with the top eight reversed from Race 1 for Race 2.