Photo: Tamara Aller

Gilles Magnus leads Audi 1-2 to Motorland Aragón pole position

Comtoyou Racing’s Gilles Magnus scored a strong pole position at Motorland Aragón for Comtoyou Racing, leading an all-Audi front row with his team-mate Nathanaël Berthon.

Magnus drove a tidy lap, controlling the only slide he had aboard his Audi RS 3 LMS in the third sector to claim the pole position, with a lap time of 2:05.485. Berthon was 0.195 seconds behind.

Cyan Racing driver Yann Ehrlacher locked up and got oversteer into Turn 12, managing a lap time of 2:05.808, 0.323 seconds off the pace to third place.

Rob Huff pushed hard during his Q3 lap for Zengo Motorsport but could only manage fourth with a lap time of 2:05.945, 0.460 seconds behind Magnus.

Lynk & Co driver Yvan Muller touched the tyre stack exiting Turn 1 to finish fifth and last of the Q3 drivers, complaining that the tyres had cooled down too much before he hit the track.

His team-mate Santiago Urrutia missed the cut for Q3 by just 0.014 seconds aboard his Lynk & Co 03 TCR, with the Uruguayan qualifying in sixth place.

Dániel Nagy took his Cupra Leon Competición to seventh place, ahead of the Hyundai Elantra N TCRs from Mikel Azcona and Norbert Michelisz. Cyan Racing’s Ma Qing Hua qualified in tenth place and secured the reversed grid pole position.

Esteban Guerrieri suffered with the 40kg of compensation weight in his Honda Civic Type R TCR to qualify in eleventh place.

Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk finished 12th and last of the Q2 drivers, battling a power steering pump that had failed at the end of Q1.

Münnich Motorsport’s Néstor Girolami struggled with pace and grip during the Q1, going wide and ruining a flying lap with two minutes left on the clock. The Argentinian finished the session in 13th place, his grid spot for both races.

“This Q3 is a mental game, you have to stay focussed and this time I did it,” said Magnus after the session. “It’s great, because I didn’t expect it after the free practice.”

Azcona continues to lead the championship with 85 points, ten points ahead of Girolami and 16 ahead of Urrutia.

The start of Race 1 is scheduled for 11:15 CEST on Sunday morning.