Norbert Michelisz claims Monza pole as Honda drivers struggle
Norbert Michelisz and Mikel Azcona secured an all-Hyundai front row for the first FIA TCR World Tour race of the weekend at Monza after a strong qualifying session where title contender and Honda driver Esteban Guerrieri finished down in 15th.
Michelisz set a fastest lap time of 1:54.347 to beat team-mate Azcona by 0.165 seconds, with the Hyundai duo working together to slipstream during their respective laps.
Cupra driver Aurélien Comte, who topped the Q1 session, meanwhile was alone on his lap which was enough for third on the grid, 0.482 seconds from pole.
Yann Ehrlacher was fastest of the Lynk & Co Cyan Racing drivers in fourth place, despite carrying the maximum of 40 kilos of compensation weight.
Ehrlacher’s team-mate Santiago Urrutia was just 14 thousands of a second behind in fourth place, half a second from pole.
ALM Motorsport driver Ruben Volt was fastest of the guest entries and the Honda drivers, claiming sixth on his very last attempt, just over six tenths from Michelisz’s time.
Thed Björk could only manage seventh place, despite running without compensation weight, ahead of John Filippi (Cupra) and Ignacio Montenegro (Honda).
Néstor Girolami finished tenth and secured the reversed grid pole position for Race 2.
Guerrieri, who is placed third overall, had a disastrous qualifying session which ended after Q1, having set the 15th fastest time, 1.5 seconds from the fastest time.
Points from qualifying means that Ehrlacher is still in the championship lead, heading team-mate Urrutia by 11 points and Guerrieri by 22 points.
The first race of the weekend starts at 15:20 CEST.
