Franco Girolami hands new Cupra León VZ TCR maiden pole in Vallelunga
Franco Girolami took the TCR Europe pole position with his Monlau Motorsport Cupra in a qualifying session heavily influenced by track limits infringements.
Ignacio Montenegro makes it an Argentinian 1-2 with his ALM Motorsport Honda Civic FL5 TCR, while Aurelien Comte (Cupra) completed the top three.
In Q1 Nicola Baldan had jumped into the lead initially in his Comtoyou-run Audi, but with ten minutes to go, Montenegro and Comte overtook the former TCR Italy champion.
Franco Girolami then took the lead by pipping Montenegro by three hundredths. A further improvement by the 2023 TCR Italy champion allowed him to resist Baldan’s attack with six minutes to go.
Several drivers including Viktor Davidovski, Dusan Borkovic and Ruben Volt had their lap times deleted during the session due to track limits infringements.
Volt and Borkovic had both their first and second runs deleted due to track limits.
The Serbian’s third attempt, which would have been good enough for sixth, was also deleted, as was Volt’s following attempt.
Borkovic finally managed to put a lap on the board, although with used tyres, which is still good enough for tenth and therefore a rather unpredictable reversed-grid pole position.
Girolami will share the front row with fellow Argentinian, Montenegro, while Comte will line up alongside Baldan.
Rubén Fernandez will start fifth, Viktor Andersson next to him in the sole Lynk & Co 03 TCR on the grid.
Levente Losonczy finished seventh in his ALM Motorsport Honda, followed by Viktor Davidovski, Felipe Fernandez and Borkovic, who will share the front row on the reversed-grid race.
TCR Europe will kick off tomorrow at 18:05 CEST for the 2024 curtain raiser.
