Mikel Azcona blasts to pole position at Sakhir
BRC Racing Team’s Mikel Azcona claimed the pole position for Friday’s opening race at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain, beating Comtoyou’s Nathanäel Bethon and championship rival Néstor Girolami.
The qualifying session started with hot temperatures in the Bahrain afternoon, and the field heading out in team formation to help the fight for the pole position.
The Honda Civics from Münnich Motorsport and Team Engstler led in the initial stages of the Q1, as Tiago Monteiro and Esteban Guerieri towed Attila Tassi and Néstor Girolami respectively.
BRC Racing Team headed out with Nicky Catsburg leading championship leader Mikel Azcona and team-mate Norbert Michelisz, but it soon emerged that the Dutch couldn’t pull his fellow Hyundai drivers along, with the Hungarian racer taking over the charge and topping the classification followed by the Spaniard.
Franco Girolami, making his series debut this weekend with an Audi RS 3 LMS from Comtoyou Racing, was in the danger zone, making a last-moment effort to get into the group promoting to Q2.
Comtoyou’s Tom Coronel was 13th fastest, ahead of Monteiro and fellow Audi driver Viktor Davidovski.
“It’s very frustrating, because this was the race to be in,” Coronel said after the Q1. “The track is so slippery because it’s so hot that the car slides everywhere.”
The entire field took to the track at the Q2’s green light, with Comtoyou’s Gilles Magnus suffering balance issues and only able to venture to the track with five minutes left on the clock.
Azcona and Michelisz led after the first attempt, with Comtoyou’s Nathanäel Berthon slotting into second place with only three minutes left. Franco Girolami lost rear parts from his Audi on the track.
The championship leader kept the top spot, with Berthon and Néstor Girolami improving in their last laps to be second and third. Michelisz was next, ahead of Catsburg, the top five battling into the Q3.
Tassi had to settle for sixth place ahead of Magnus and Guerrieri, who was under investigation for impeding Franco Girolami, ninth in the end. Comtoyou’s Mehdi Benanni took the tenth spot.
The Cupras from Zengo Motorsport were next, with Dániel Nagy in eleventh place and Bence Boldizs in twelfth, their starting spots for both races.
“We are in the top ten in my first race, which was a bit the target, so it’s been a good day,” Franco Girolami said after the session. “The heat is an issue here, but we start tomorrow from the front row, so let’s see.”
Azcona was the last driver to take to the track in the Q3, completing two solid first sectors but blasting around in the last one, to claim the pole position with a lap time of 2:11.061, ahead of Berthon, 0.114 seconds behind.
Néstor Girolami qualified in third place, 0.160 seconds behind the Spaniard and his championship rival, with Michelisz in fourth position, 0.361 seconds behind his team-mate.
Catsburg was the second driver on the track in the Q3, struggling with the rear end of his Elantra N TCR during his flying lap, to set a time of 2:11.764, only to see his lap deleted because of a track limits infraction.
After the qualifying session, Azcona now leads the championship with 251 points, 37 ahead of Girolami.
The start of Race 1 is scheduled for Friday at 19:05 local time, 17:05 CET.
