Esteban Guerrieri snatches close Mexico pole as Hyundais are eliminated early
Esteban Guerrieri claimed the first FIA TCR World Tour pole position of 2025 after beating Yann Ehrlacher by just 72 thousands of a second at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico.
The GOAT Racing Honda driver topped both Q1 and Q2 while disaster struck the three Hyundai drivers who were all eliminated in Q1.
Reigning champion Norbert Michelisz could only manage 13th place, 1.4 seconds from Guerrieri’s top Q1 time.
Néstor Girolami was two places behind in 15th while a deeply disappointed Mikel Azcona will start 19th in the first race, suffering two technical issues during the session.
The Spaniard was in the pits with a turbo issue firstly and later reported a broken front roll bar.
The first flying laps of Q2 saw last year’s runner-up Thed Björk setting the pace with 1:33.932, only for Guerrieri to beat him by close to two tenths of a second with 1:33.742 on his second attempt.
Lynk & Co Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher improved to second place on his last attempt, just 0.072 seconds slower than his Honda rival.
Guerrieri’s GOAT Racing team-mate Ignacio Montenegro claimed a strong fourth place finish behind Lynk & Co 03 TCR driver Björk and ahead of Santiago Urrutia.
Aurélien Comte was fastest of the Cupra drivers in sixth place, half a second from pole, with Ma Qing Hua last of the Lynk & Co drivers in seventh place.
Julio Rejón was once again fastest of the TCR Mexico drivers in eighth place, 1.3 seconds from pole, ahead of John Filippi and Rodrigo Rejón.
The first race of the weekend starts at 15:00 local time/23:00 CEST.
