Fast Frenchman Julien Briché is a six-time race winner in TCR Europe, thanks to his title-fighting spell between 2019 and 2020, but the French driver has only one pole position to his name, but with a very interesting record attached to it, the TCR Europe qualifying lap record at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza.

Despite the series returning for another four years after Briché set his pole record of 1:56.308 in 2019, then with a Peugeot 308 TCR, no one has bettered it since, even though the second-generation TCR cars used since have been generally getting faster each year.

That record could certainly fall this weekend. Briché himself returns to the series this weekend and so has a chance to beat his own record, now equipped with a Gen 2 Hyundai Elantra N TCR, but with 29 other cars in the field, there’s a good chance someone else will be able to claim to be the fastest driver at The Temple Of Speed.

One of those drivers can already make that claim, and that’s Nicola Baldan. The Italian driver has driven faster around Monza than Briché, just last year in the TCR Italy championship in prime weather conditions, then with the AIKOA Racing team.

Can the Italian, or his former team represented by Giacomo Prandelli this weekend repeat that pace or go even faster? Can the TCR Europe pack be quicker than the Italians in their own series? This should be answered around 12:30 on Saturday when the chequered flag falls in qualifying.