Lynk & Co 03 cars set the fastest time overall and the best TCR Europe time in the two-stage Qualifying session at the Hungaroring ahead of the first race in the KUMHO TCR World Tour event at the circuit on the outskirts of Budapest. Cyan Racing Lynk & Co’s Yann Ehrlacher just edged out the ALM Motorsport Honda Civic Type R FL5 of Néstor Girolami, with Ehrlacher’s teammate Ma Qing Hua setting the third fastest time. In TCR Europe, it was the distinctive orange MA:GP Lynk & Co of Viktor Andersson that set the quickest time ahead of Dušan Borković’s Target Competition Hyundai Elantra N.

In the first twenty-minute part of Qualifying, it was the local hero Norbert Michelisz who set the first flying lap time (1:53.866) in his BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse Elantra N ahead of the Cyan Racing Lynk & Co duo of Santiago Urrutia (1:54.348) and Ma Qing Hua (1:54.443). The two Audi Sport Team Comtoyou RS 3 LMS cars of Rob Huff (1:54.258) and Frédéric Vervisch (1:54.258) then went second and third fastest respectively before Néstor Girolami’s Honda went fastest with a lap of 1:52.708.

In the second half of the session, Vervisch improved to P3 behind Michelisz with a 1:54.221 while Girolami’s new teammate Ruben Volt was in P5 (1:54.251). There was then a flurry of quick laps, with Urrutia (1:53.303), Michelisz (1:53.465) and Mikel Azcona (1:53.582) all improving but Yann Ehrlacher went fastest with a 1:52.560 after having his previous best lap time deleted for infringing track limits. Fastest of the TCR Europe drivers were Tom Coronel (1:54.500) and Kevin Ceccon (1:54.516) in the final two positions that would take them through into Q2, while Dušan Borković was a frustrating 0.023 away from the all-important top twelve. With a little over a minute remaining, Viktor Andersson set a 1:53.740 that saw him leap up to P8 overall and take over as the quickest in TCR Europe. Borković then went P12 (1:54.085) edging out Coronel, Kobe Pauwels and Ceccon.

The twelve drivers going through to the second stage of Qualifying, therefore, were Girolami, Ehrlacher, Ma Qing Hua, Urrutia, Michelisz, Azcona, Thed Björk, Andersson, Vervisch, Volt, Huff and Borković.

The ten-minute Q2 then saw Ehrlacher set the first competitive lap time (1:52.289) ahead of Girolami (1:52.362) and Ma Qing Hua (1:52.795). On the next lap, all but three of the cars headed for the pits for fresh tyres, leaving enough time for just one flying lap. Borković set a 1:54.153 to set the fastest TCR Europe lap time just before the chequered flag fell, but lots of purple and green on the timing screen confirmed that the final lap would potentially decide the positions.

Ehrlacher improved with a 1:52.219 to strengthen his grip on P1, with Ma also improving (1:52.761) although it wasn’t quite enough to beat Girolami for P2. Andersson went P7 overall with a 1:53.748 to take over from Borković as the best of the TCR Europe drivers while Rob Huff was one of several drivers to have laps deleted and the British driver ended the session in twelfth place behind Volt.

Ehrlacher will therefore start Race 1 from pole position with Girolami alongside him on the front row of the grid while Borković will start from pole for the reversed-grid Race 2, sharing the front row with Thed Björk’s Lynk & Co.

Race 1 is scheduled to start at 17.05 CEST this afternoon with Race 2 at 12.05 tomorrow. Both races will be streamed live on tcr-series.tv and the TCR TV app, plus the TCR TV YouTube channel.

Qualifying - overall

1. Yann Ehrlacher (Cyan Racing Lynk & Co, Lynk & Co 03)  1:52.219

2. Néstor Girolami (ALM Motorsport, Honda Civic Type R FL5)  1:52.362

3. Ma Qing Hua (Cyan Racing Lynk & Co, Lynk & Co 03)  1:52.761

Qualifying – TCR Europe

1. Viktor Andersson (MA:GP, Lynk & Co 03)  1:53.748

2. Dušan Borković (Target Competition, Hyundai Elantra N)  1:54.153

3. Tom Coronel (Comtoyou Racing, Audi RS 3 LMS)  1:54.375

TCR Europe Championship points

1. Tom Coronel 223pts; 2. John Filippi 204pts; 3. Kobe Pauwels 163pts; 4. Dušan Borković 142pts; 5. Viktor Davidovski 132pts.