Eric Gené reclaims TCR Europe points lead as Ruben Volt claims pole in Spain

ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt claimed pole position for the penultimate TCR Europe race of the season at Barcelona as Eric Gené moved back into the lead of the standings after scraping into Q2.

Having set the fastest time in second practice, Honda Civic Type-R driver Volt continued his domination of the season finale by ending the second segment of qualifying over half a second quicker than Auto Club RC2 Valles’ Felipe Fernández Gil.

Jacopo Cimenes was third quickest for MM Motorsport, completing a Honda clean sweep of the top three, while Jenson Brickley was fourth ahead of Monlau Motorsport Cupra team-mate Gené.

Gené arrived in Spain tied on points with Marco Butti and initially missed out on a spot in Q2 after losing a time to a track limits infringement.

However, upon review, Gené had his time reinstated and made a last-minute surge to set the fifth quickest time and take a two-point championship margin over Butti, who suffered technical issues in Q1.

The Spaniard made it into Q2 at the expense of another title challenger Max Hart, who will have to start both races from 13th on the grid. Butti also missed out on Q2 altogether, only managing 16th on the grid for both races.

Cold early morning track temperatures meant that very few laps were set in the opening segment as crews elected to generate sufficient heat in the tyres.

Indeed, championship contenders Gené and Teddy Clairet spent much of the opening minutes in and out of the pits as Brickley was the only driver to set a time in the first five minutes.

Gené did initially set the best proper lap-time but a track limits infringement meant he lost that time as Felipe Fernández Gil set the early pace from Ruben Volt.

Volt topped the session by over four-tenths from Brickley, Fernández Gil and Viktor Andersson while the Clairets, Teddy and Jimmy, rounded out the top six respectively.

Come the second session, Volt was on another planet and duly set the fastest time midway through Q2, never to be beaten.

Gené appeared to struggle on his first attempt, locking up at turn one and having to abort; Jimmy Clairet did likewise on his first lap and eventually ended up one place behind Gené in sixth on the grid.

Solite Indigo Racing’s Junui Park made a late improvement to line up seventh for race one, with René Kircher eighth for ALM Motorsport.

Teddy Clairet will start ninth on the grid, but remains in touch with fellow title rivals Gené and Jimmy Clairet and will start the reversed-grid race two from the front row of the grid. Solite Indigo Racing’s Junesung Park will start race two from pole after completing the top 10 in Q2.

Race one at Barcelona is scheduled to take place later on today at 15:30 CEST