Photo: TCR Germany

Jürgen Schmarl puts Target Honda on pole at the Nürburgring

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Jürgen Schmarl qualified on pole position for the fifth round of the 2016 TCR Germany series at the Nürburgring, outqualifying the DG Sport-run Opel Astra of Jordi Oriola by just over a tenth of a second.

Schmarl scored his first pole of the 2016 season for Target Competition for the Italian team, which recently made the switch to Honda after starting the year with the SEAT León Cup Racer. Target’s former driver Jordi Oriola showed impressive pace in the Opel Astra, splitting the Target Honda pair of Schmarl and team-mate and championship leader Josh Files.

“I’m really happy with the pole position. Although that’s doesn’t say much for the weekend, we have shown that we have the speed and are on the way forward, so we are very proud of it,” said Schmarl.

Behind the top three, the Portuguese driver Francisco Mora qualified in fourth position, also driving for Target Competition but in a SEAT León TCR, while series front-runner Steve Kirsch qualified in fifth position in the Team Honda ADAC Sachsen Honda Civic TCR.

Mario Dablander was sixth fastest in the SEAT Austria-run León TCR, with Benjamin Leuchter the best-placed of the Volkswagen contingent in seventh driving for Racing One.

Pierre-Yves Corthals, making his TCR Germany debut this weekend after racing in the first two rounds of the TCR Benelux series, was eighth fastest in the second fastest of DG Sport’s Opel Astra TCRs, while Finland’s Antti Buri qualified ninth in his privately entered SEAT León TCR.

Mike Halder completed the top ten in an Engstler Motorsport-run SEAT León Cup Racer, and will benefit from the reversed grid pole position for Race 2 on Sunday. Pascal Eberle in the Steibel Motorsport SEAT León and Vincent Radermecker, another Belgian making his TCR Germany debut with Milo Racing, the team with which he scored victory three weeks’ ago in Zolder, both just missed out on the top ten.

A key name to miss the second part of qualifying was HP Racing’s Hari Proczyk, with the Austrian driver who lies second in the standings qualifying in 14th position.

21 cars are entered for this weekend’s races, the first of which takes place at 12:00 CET on Saturday.