Mike Halder claimed his first Pole Position Award by TR Watches of the season at a critical time, as Tom Coronel’s three-year-old lap record finally fell in qualifying at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, while the other title contenders had mixed fortunes.

Nicola Baldan and Tiago Pernía were the two title contenders eliminated in the first part of qualifying. Pernía just missed the cut in 13th, while Baldan was 16th, 1.1 seconds off the pace.

Halder broke the circuit lap record in Q1 with a time of 1:48.587, nearly half a second faster than Coronel’s mark from 2023.

In Q2, Halder pitted during his first run with a minor battery issue but went straight back out. Gabriele Covini then set the fastest time in his BRC Racing Team Hyundai, while team-mate Alex Ley was close to Covini’s time before losing his best lap to a track limits violation. Ley didn’t have time to go back out and improve, and found himself just outside the top ten in 11th.

The next-best-placed title contender was Marco Butti in eighth, with Junui Park and Nicolas Taylor ninth and tenth. Taylor secured the reversed-grid pole, which might give the Canadian a fighting chance of putting his title hopes back on track in Sunday’s race.

Covini took second, but there was a star turn from RC2 Racing Team’s Victor Chan, who was third quickest, just ahead of the two CUPRAs of Mikhail Simonov and Adam Shepherd.

The first race takes place at 17:15 CEST.