Alex Ley is delighted with pole position on his TCR Europe debut at Mugello, as the British driver quickly turns his attention to the race where he’ll start alongside his fast team-mate Gabriele Covini.

Covini and Ley topped each part of qualifying, with Ley’s time of 1:54.495 in Qualifying 2 securing him a debut pole, while Covini’s time of 1:54.481 in Q1 was just 14-thousandths of a second faster and therefore secured the Italian the new TCR qualifying record at Mugello, but he couldn’t replicate that time in the second part of qualifying and had to settle for second.

The two BRC Racing Team Hyundais will start ahead of a pair of Hondas, with Tiago Pernía leading off Mike Halder from row two in the battle for Race 1 this afternoon.

“It’s a really good feeling. I’m so happy,” said Ley after his pole position. “The race is only in a few hours so I barely have time to celebrate, and we have to put our concentration straight into it.

“It’s always nice to have someone in the same colours starting near you as we can work together,” he added, reflecting on his team-mate’s performance.  “It’s definitely better than having someone else alongside, and we’re good friends so I’m very happy that he’s done a mega job.”