Photo: TCR World Tour

Norbert Michelisz claims first 2026 pole in wet Zhejiang qualifying

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Norbert Michelisz claimed his first FIA TCR World Tour pole position of 2026 at a wet Zhejiang Circuit in China, heading a BRC Hyundai 1-2 with team-mate and points leader Mikel Azcona.

The first Q1 session was red-flagged early as Andy Liang Wenyao went off into the gravel and had to be recovered.

Michelisz set his fastest lap of 1:45.285 during his first attempt in Q2 and remained unchallenged for the rest of the session, beating Azcona by no less than four tenths of a second.

Title challenger Santiago Urrutia was third fastest, 0.674 seconds from pole, ahead of Geely Cyan Racing team-mates Ma Qing Hua and Yann Ehrlacher.

Aurélien Comte was again fastest of the Cupra drivers in sixth place ahead of Geely driver Thed Björk.

Lo Sze Ho claimed eighth ahead of Jean-Karl Vernay and Diego Moran who is on the provisional Race 2 reversed-grid pole position.

The first race of the weekend starts at 15:00 local time/09:00 CEST.