Championship rivals on the back foot after disastrous qualifying

None of the top three drivers in the TCR Europe series were well-placed after qualifying, with the top three in the standings all running into difficulty at Oschersleben.

Points leader Josh Files could rescue his weekend by at least having secured second for tomorrow’s reversed grid race, despite being 1.1 seconds off the pace of his Target Competition team-mate Andreas Bäckman in qualifying, where he qualified ninth overall.

Files’ car was worked on overnight after the British driver became one of the many victims of the new kerbs at the chicane, knocking his i30 N TCR’s subframe out of alignment in the first practice session yesterday.

His closest rival in the championship, Luca Engstler, also ran into trouble, with the young German’s steering rack snapping at the start of his second lap in Qualifying 2, which pitched him wide at Turn 2.

His M1RA team have just under two hours after the close of parc ferme to replace the rack, but could also run into a fine or a grid penalty as the team are being investigated for an unsafe release in Qualifying 1.

“It’s disappointing, as this is a circuit where we know we can do well,” said Engstler. “The upcoming circuits are going to favour Audi, so we needed to make the most of this weekend.”

The last and worst-placed of the championship front-runners was Julien Briché. Three times a race winner this season, the Peugeot 308TCR driver continues to struggle with the revised Balance of Performance set just ahead of the last round at Spielberg, despite the Peugeots having had 30kg given back in reduced compensation weight this weekend.

Fourth in the championship, Mat’o Homola, also struggled in qualifying, missing the top 12 cut, and will start 13th for both races in his Target Competition Hyundai i30 N TCR.

“I did my best. I made a small mistake, and I’m P13, so I’m really disappointed,” said Homola. “We need to look at the data and see what’s wrong, but I’ll try my best for the races.”

This leaves Gilles Magnus as on average the best-placed of the championship contenders, with the Belgian fifth in the standings. The Comtoyou Racing Audi driver qualified fifth, but he’ll drop to eighth for Race 1 following a grid penalty left over from Spielberg, promoting Jessica Bäckman’s Target Competition Hyundai in his place.