Mat’o Homola claims pole position at the Salzburgring for Opel
Mat’o Homola has claimed pole position for Race 1 at the Salzburgring, fastest of all in the Opel Astra ahead of the Alfa Romeo of Dusan Borkovic, with Pepe Oriola third fastest in the SEAT León of Craft-Bamboo Racing.
Borkovic set the first benchmark as the field ahead of him went through the pits in order to avoid handing over a slipstream to their rivals. The Serbian’s lap time was in the 1:25s, with the Alfa Romeo competitive in clear air, but Homola jumped to the top in the Opel Astra with a time of 1:25.481.
Borkovic fought back, but could only get to 0.071 seconds of Homola’s time.
Oriola finished third, with M1RA’s Attila Tassi fourth, though the Hungarian will take a grid penalty for Race 1 due to an engine change.
Thomas Jäger was fifth on his TCR debut with Kissling in the #35 Opel, while James Nash made a late improvement to go sixth, though this demoted team-mate Daniel Lloyd out of the top ten and off the Race 2 pole spot.
Rob Huff was seventh in the Team WRT Volkswagen, just ahead of Stefano Comini’s Audi, who narrowly avoided an incident with a slowing Borkovic late in the session which stopped him from improving.
Gianni Morbidelli finished ninth in the WestCoast Racing Volkswagen, with M1RA’s Roberto Colciago tenth, securing pole position for Race 2.
Championship leader Jean-Karl Vernay qualified in 13th for both races, bumped out of Qualifying 1 at the last moment by Morbidelli, with Morbidelli only moved into the top 12 after GE-Force Alfa driver Davit Kajaia’s best lap was deleted for being set under yellow flags.
Race 1 takes place at 13:05 CET on Sunday.
