Viktor Andersson has claimed his first pole position of the season, and his first in three years at Circuit Paul Ricard, setting the qualifying lap record in the process, while championship leader Mike Halder secured the front-row spot alongside him.

The Swedish driver put down a sensational first lap early in the second part of qualifying which could not be beaten. His time of 2:10.720 was over a second faster than he went at the same circuit two months ago in TCR Spain, setting the all-time TCR qualifying record at the French circuit and claiming the Pole Position Award by TR Watches.

Halder, in his ALM Motorsport Honda Civic, managed to be the only other driver to get under the 2:11 barrier, going even faster on the second lap of his first set of tyres to close to within two-tenths of Andersson, despite carrying the maximum compensation weight this weekend.

Andersson’s Monlau Motorsport team-mate Marco Butti qualified an impressive third, while Nicola Baldan was the best-placed of the Audis, qualifying in fourth.

Tiago Pernía made a late improvement to go fifth, bumping newcomer Matéo Herrero down; nevertheless, the CUPRA driver was impressively placed in the top 12 in his first TCR Europe appearance.

Junui Park’s Hyundai and Mikhail Simonov’s CUPRA were sixth and seventh, while Herrero Racing’s Victor Weyrich qualified a personal-best eighth, and was the fastest of the Tenerife Trophy drivers.

Nicolas Taylor was ninth, meaning the Canadian will start from the front row of the second race on Sunday, while BRC Racing Team’s Gabriele Covini was tenth quickest and so secures the reversed-grid pole position.

It was a difficult session for Covini’s team-mate Alex Ley, whose fastest lap from Q1 was deleted—a time which would have seen him safely through into Q2. His next-best lap, set on his third lap on the same set of tyres, was only good enough for 22nd.

The first race of the day is scheduled for 18:15 CEST today.