Alex Ley has claimed pole position for the first race of the TCR Europe Cup at Spa-Francorchamps, obliterating the qualifying record at the circuit by over a second, though he was closely challenged by the CUPRA of Viktor Andersson in the tight 20-minute session.

Ley set the benchmark down in his BRC Racing Team Hyundai Elantra N TCR, before quickly improving on his time and for a while had more than seven-tenths of a second margin to his closest competitor which was the rival Hyundai of Junesung Park.

In the final five minutes of the session, it closed up at the front as first the two RC2 Racing Team Hondas jumped forward, with Jenson Brickley going second quickest ahead of new team-mate Felipe Fernández, the holder of the qualifying record from the TCR Europe series race at Spa-Francorchamps last year.

Fernández and Brickley were then split by an improvement by Park, while Andersson’s Monlau Motorsport CUPRA grabbed the outside position on the front row with a time just 71-thousandths slower than Ley’s time just before the chequered flag.

Just outside the top five was the best-placed of the RTI Trophy drivers, Santiago Concépcion, who was also the fastest of the Audi contingent, putting his AIKOA Racing RS 3 LMS sixth on the grid, seven-tenths of a second off the pace.

The next session is Qualifying 2, which gets underway at 09:00 CEST tomorrow morning, with Race 1, based on today’s qualifying, due to start at 17:25 CEST, which will be live on YouTube.

Qualifying 1 result

1 – Alex Ley – BRC Racing Team – Hyundai Elantra N TCR – 2:26.170
2 – Viktor Andersson – Monlau Motorsport – CUPRA Leon VZ TCR – +0.071
3 – Jenson Brickley – RC2 Racing Team – Honda Civic Type R FL5 TCR – +0.215
4 – Junesung Park – Solite Indigo Racing – Hyundai Elantra N TCR – +0.594
5 – Felipe Fernández – RC2 Racing Team – Honda Civic Type R FL5 TCR – +0.685
6 – Santiago Concepción – AIKOA Racing – Audi RS 3 LMS – +0.764
7 – Nicolas Taylor – PMA Motorsport – Audi RS 3 LMS – +0.846
8 – Tiago Pernía – Squadra Martino – Honda Civic Type R FL5 TCR – +1.138 
9 – Giacomo Prandelli – AIKOA Racing – Audi RS 3 LMS – +3.555
10 – Sandro Pelatti – PMA Motorsport – CUPRA Leon VZ TCR - +5.769