Photo: Cyan Racing

Yann Ehrlacher claims TCR World Tour pole at Hungaroring

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Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher claimed pole in TCR World Tour and TCR Europe qualifying at the Hungaroring.

Home hero Norbert Michelisz started Q1 on top for BRC Racing, with Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia in second place until eleven-and-a-half minutes to go when Comtoyou Racing’s Rob Huff went faster.

ALM Motorsport’s debuting Ruben Volt then went 0.007 seconds faster than Huff a minute after that, but none of them were near Michelisz’s pace.

The Hyundai driver was finally toppled as the 20-minute qualifying segment went into its second half, as Volt’s team-mate Néstor Girolami set a 1:52.708 to go fastest by 1.158s.

Comtoyou Racing’s Frédéric Vervisch rose up to third place, 0.355s behind Micheliz, but that gap opened up when Michelisz improved his pace with just over eight minutes left on the clock. His team-mate Mikel Azcona set a personal best lap at the same time and moved into third, 0.117s behind Michelisz.

Although most of the cars were on track thereon, there were only a few able to improve.

Ehrlacher went fastest with just under six minutes to go of Q1, and at the same time team-mate Urrutia lapped fast enough to rise into third place. With just over two minutes left, Girolami reclaimed first place with a 1:52.510.

The only other change came 19 seconds before the chequered flag appeared, as Cyan Racing’s Ma Qing Hua set a 1:52.806 to demote Urrutia to fourth.

Q2 was similarly drama-free. Girolami set a 1:52.361 benchmark four minutes into the 10 minutes of track action, and soon after Ehrlacher put in a 1:52.289 to put himself on top all the way to the finish.

Volt, down in 12th, was the only driver to improve on their opening flying lap before the chequered flag came out, although others saved their best till last.

Ehrlacher improved to 1:52.219 after the finish, and Hua set a 1:52.761 to secure third on the Race 1 grid. Azcona, Michelisz and Urrutia filled the next positions, with MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson the next improver down in seventh place.

Having had his fastest lap deleted due to a track limits offense, Huff ended up down in 12th. Two places ahead of him was Dušan Borković, who will start from pole in the reversed-grid Race 2 on Sunday.

Race 1 starts at 17:05 local time (CEST) today.