Nicola Baldan doubles up on poles at Imola
TCR Italy series points leader Nicola Baldan has secured pole position for both of this weekend’s races at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari near Imola.
The Pit Lane Competizione SEAT León driver topped the first qualifying session, in a session was being fought out between TCR International Series regulars Giacomo Altoè and Stefano Comini in the early stages, driving for V-Action Racing in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta and Top Run Motorsport in a Subaru WRX STi respectively.
Baldan’s time of 1:53.3788 safely secured him pole position, almost a second clear of Jonathon Giacon, who has now switched to a Honda Civic FK2 Type-R TCR for this event.
Stefano Comini qualified third for his TCR Italy series debut in the Top Run Subaru, with Giacomo Altoè fourth in the Alfa, with Plamen Kralev the best-placed Audi driver in fifth for Kraf Racing.
In Qualifying 2, Max Mugelli set the first benchmark in his Pit Lane Competizione Audi RS 3 LMS, before team-mate Baldan went fastest after five minutes in his SEAT León, and looked set for pole for much of the session, with no one coming near the 35-year-old.
Then a final flurry of improvements followed just as the chequered flag was unfurled, with MM Motorsport’s Eric Scalivini snatching provisional pole with a time of 1:53.265 in his Honda Civic, while Swedish driver Joakim Darbom went second fastest in the V-Action Racing Alfa Romeo, just under half a second behind.
Baldan still had one more run however, and the SEAT driver was able to snatch pole back by just 0.144 seconds, setting the best time in both sessions of 1:53.121.
Championship rival Scalvini qualified in second ahead of Darbom, with Kevin Giacon in the Gruppo Piloti Forlivesi Opel Astra TCR fourth, and Giacomo Altoè in the second V-Action Alfa Romeo fifth.
Stefano Comini experienced difficulties in Qualfifying 2, and qualified his Subaru 13th, 3.7 seconds off the pace.
Race 1 is scheduled for 13:45 CET on Saturday, with Race 2 at 11:05 CET on Sunday
Qualifying 1 result:
