Photo: TCR Media

Jordi Gené takes pole position despite disallowed lap

Jordi Gené took pole position for Craft-Bamboo Lukoil Racing in Sochi, Russia. Despite being disallowed his fastest lap time, the Spaniard’s second best time was enough for pole position. Target Competition’s Andrea Belicchi came second ahead of pole sitter’s team-mate Pepe Oriola.

Tomas Engström, who finished fourth, had led most of the session, with team-mate Mikhail Grachev making a Liqui Moly Team Engstler 1-2 look likely until three minutes before the end of qualifying.

Sergey Afanasyev came home sixth just behind his compatriot, ahead of Target Competition’s Stefano Comini, the Swiss driver sharing the fourth row with arch rival Gianni Morbidelli, eighth in his WestCoast Racing Honda Civic TCR, the Italian not able to repeat the great performances shown this morning.

Fifth row will also feature a Target Competition and a WestCoast Racing car, with Michel Nykjaer ahead of Kevin Gleason, who will start on pole position for Race 2. Home hero Aleksey Dudukalo finished eleventh ahead of TCR rookie Ildar Rakhmatullin.

Next up for the TCR International Series is the shakedown session, which starts at 9.00 tomorrow and will last ten minutes.