Sten-Dorian Piirimägi: “We are focusing on our fight in the TCR Spain”

ALM Motorsport’s Sten-Dorian Piirimägi scored his first pole position of the 2026 TCR Spain season at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, in a session marked by the shared track time with the World Tour drivers.

“In Q1, the balance of the car was perfect,” Piirimägi told TouringCarTimes. “We were able to show a lot of pace compared to the world’s all class.

“Q2 was a bit more difficult, so the track temperature went up, and I think we just lost a bit of confidence in the balance of the car, but it was still good nevertheless.”

The direct competition with the World Tour drivers presented an added level of difficulty, especially as lap times improved by over a second compared to the free practice sessions.

“I think we were able to maximize as much as we could,” he added. “But, of course, the world tour cars, or drivers, are one step ahead, so it’s very difficult to compete with them.

“Very difficult to compete with them on pace, but I think race pace will be a little bit different.”

The Honda driver was obviously pleased to score the pole position for the TCR Spain, and remains focused on his target in the national championship.

“I feel very happy that we were able to snatch pole in TCR Spain.

“Now it’s just down to the races to focus to get through the races cleanly, we don’t want to get mixed up with our world tour cars, we don’t want to shake up their championship and we don’t want to shake up ours, so I will be careful but fair.”

Piirimägi is still ready to fight though: “I mean, of course, we won’t bow down to anyone, but if there’s a chance to overtake, we will use that chance but, of course, we have to keep in mind that we are driving different championships.”