Mikel Azcona takes last-gasp pole position in Vila Real

BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse driver Mikel Azcona fought until the last lap to score pole position and the championship lead in Vila Real, host of the fourth round of the 2026 FIA TCR World Tour season.

The session started with a ten-minute delay due to incidents in the supporting categories.

Despite some clouds coming over the street track, the field faced track temperatures above 53º at the start of the session.

Hyundai drivers Azcona and Norbert Michelisz led in the early stages of the Q1 with used tyres.

Drivers mounted new tyres for their second attempt, with the Geelys of Yann Ehrlacher, Ma Qing Hua and Santiago Urrutia taking the session command.

The Q1 was red flagged due to ALM Motorsport driver Mikael Karlsson (Honda) hitting the barriers with nine minutes to go.

The session was restarted, but a second red flag came out with just under five minutes to go as Stian Paulsen hit the barriers at the second chicane. And things went from bad to worse as Vannin Motorsport team-mate Manuel Fernandes unable to avoid him and hit the back of his Audi.

The track went green again with the Geelys going out for a final attempt, whilst the Hyundais chose to remain in the pits.

The Geely and Hyundai driver went onto the Q2 session, as well as Cupra drivers Aurélien Comte, Viktor Anderson and Enzo Gianfratti, Jimmy Clairet (Audi) and Jenson Brickley (Honda).

Fernandes was unable to take part in the Q2, despite finishing eleventh, due to the damage sustained in his incident with Paulsen.

The 15-minute Q2 started with all the participants except Björk taking to the track.

Michelisz was painting purple sector on his second flying lap, but a problem at the second chicane where he locked his front tyres forced him to abort his attempt and return to the pits.

Azcona climbed to the front but was quickly beaten by Urrutia, with Ma in third and then Ehrlacher.

Björk took to the track as the rest of the field returned to the pits after their first attempt. The Swede climbed to ninth place, in an attempt to achieve the reverse grid pole position for Race 2.

Meanwhile, the BRC Hyundai mechanics worked franticly to replace a driveshaft on Michelisz’s car, with the Hungarian returning to the track with just four minutes to go.

Ehrlacher pulled a last-minute effort, climbing to the top briefly as the chequered flag was already waving, but it was the Spaniard who clocked the pole position on his last attempt.

Azcona was first with a lap time of 1:59.125, just 0.046 seconds faster than Ehrlacher, with Ma improving at the end to qualify in third place, 0.173 seconds behind the Hyundai driver.

Urrutia was fourth, followed by Comte and Andersson, with the Swede 1.8 seconds off the pace.

Clairet qualified in seventh place ahead of Brickley and Michelisz, whose last-minute effort took him to ninth position. Björk completed the top ten and the reversed grid pole for Race 2.

Azcona now heads the standings on 191 points while Urrutia has dropped to second on 188 points.

The field returns to the track on Sunday at 12:00 local time (13:00 CEST) for Race 1.