Marco Butti claims pole for opening TCR Europe race in Hungary

Monlau Motorsport’s Marco Butti claimed pole position for the opening TCR Europe race of the Hungaroring weekend, beating ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt by just six-hundredths of a second.

Butti’s time of 1:51.954 was the Italian’s only flying lap in Q2 and proved just enough to maintain top position, while Victor Chan secured the reversed grid pole for race two after setting the 10th-best time.

Series points leader Nicolas Taylor was a disappointing 11th in Q2, and will therefore start both races from outside the top 10.

Having shown pace in Friday’s second free practice, Volt was the first to set a representative lap-time early in Q1, his 1:52.580 some two-tenths of a second quicker than his ALM Motorsport team-mate Mike Halder.

That benchmark remained untouched for over half the session, before Halder hit the top of the table for what would ultimately the quickest time of the opening segment, with a 1:51.799.

Behind the top two, it was something of a lottery as several drivers took turns as best of the rest. Points leader Nicolas Taylor initially lay second before being beaten by Viktor Andersson and then Halder. Taylor did make it through to Q2, but only just in 12th place.

Notably, Taylor’s PMA Motorsport team-mate Nicola Baldan failed to make it through the first session, the latter running with 40kg of compensation weight. Baldan will start 15th for each of the weekend’s races in his Audi RS 3 LMS.

For a while, it looked as though FP1 pacesetter Felipe Fernández would also fall at the first hurdle. The Spaniard aboard his Honda Civic Type-R had multiple laps disallowed due to track limits infringements, but set the second-quickest time on his last attempt to sneak through to Q2.

Among those who missed out on a berth in Q2 was Max Hart, the Irishman struggled for pace in practice and had been on the bubble before Fernández’s late improvement.

Santiago Concepción, in his first outing with Squadra Martino, was another to fall at the first stage, in 17th, one place behind Junesung Park.

With effectively just one flying lap in Q2, Butti was quick out of the blocks and set his pole-setting time early on.

Fernández, eager to avoid having to go again, was second quickest ahead of Tiago Pernía and Taylor.

Both Halder and Volt waited until the final stages before heading out on track, with Halder setting the seventh best time before Volt vaulted to second, just fractionally off the fastest effort.

Fernández and Pernía had to make do with the second row of the grid for race one, with BRC Racing Team Hyundai pairing Alex Ley and Gabriele Covini fifth and sixth.

Behind, Halder and Viktor Andersson (Monlau Motorsport Cupra) line up on the fourth row, with Junui Park (Solite Indigo Racing Hyundai) and Victor Chan (Auto Club RC2 Valles Honda) rounding out the top 10.

Taylor was just 43-thousandths of a second away from race two pole position, but will instead start 11th for both races, one place ahead of Adam Shepherd.

Race one at the Hungaroring is scheduled to take place later today at 17:25 CEST.