Luigi Ferrara takes maiden pole position at Misano
Luigi Ferrara took his first pole position of the year at Misano, the third round of TCR Italy. The V-Action driver will share the front row with title rivals Salvatore Tavano and Matteo Greco, while Lorenzo Nicoli finished third in his MM Motorsport Honda Civic TCR.
BRC Racing driver Eric Scalvini had led the way for much of the session, the Hyundai driver also momentarily benefitting from two full course yellows, which prevented rivals from improving their lap times. The 31-car field made the traffic situation quite complicated as well.
In the dying moments of the session, however, most drivers went back out with new tyres and improved their laps, including Ferrara, who had been navigating outside the top ten prior to that and was the first to break the 1’43 barrier, with Tavano and Nicoli following suit. Scalvini couldn’t improve his lap time and will start fourth in his Hyundai i30 N TCR.
Despite looking in a good shape to take an even better result, Max Mugelli was fifth in his MM Motorsport Honda, ahead of Plamen Kralev’s Audi and Jürgen Schmarl, who made it into the top ten just under the flag in his Honda. Enrico Bettera will start eighth in his Audi RS 3 LMS, ahead of Portuguese driver José Rodrigues, with Davide Nardilli completing the top ten in his Honda.
Defending champion Nicola Baldan struggled into eleventh, while former TCR Germany regular Felix Wimmer had looked set for a remarkable top ten result until sequential-equipped drivers improved their lap times, although his 14th place is still enough to give him pole position in the DSG trophy.
The first race of the weekend will start at 18:10 CET and is scheduled to be streamed on the championship’s Facebook page.
