Mikel Azcona has taken pole position at Misano, for the first race of the 2026 Kumho FIA TCR World Tour, leading a BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse 1-2 ahead of teammate Norbert Michelisz, while three of Geely’s new cars will start right behind them, led by reigning champion Yann Ehrlacher.
Azcona set down the pole on his first run in Q2, with a lap of 1:39.622, with Michelisz just 34-thousandths behind. Late improvements for the Geely Cyan Racing cars of Ehrlacher and Santiago Urrutia saw them move up to third and fourth, with Thed Björk fifth quickest.
Ruben Volt was behind them in the ALM Motorsport Honda, the best-placed of the ETS Guest Star Trophy drivers, followed by Aurélien Comte and Julien Briché.
Ma Qing Hua qualified a strategic ninth in his Geely Preface and has a chance to snatch pole position for Race 2 should he be able to set the fastest lap in the first race and advance a position. Otherwise, the pole on the reversed grid will be taken up by the third BRC Hyundai of Gabriele Covini, who rounded out the top ten.
Failing to make the top ten was Jenson Brickley who lost three laps from Q2 due to track limits violations, while Esteban Guerrieri also lost his first lap, then stopped on track without setting a time and qualified 12th.
Names who didn’t progress to Q2 included TCR returnee Jean-Karl Vernay, Monlau CUPRA driver Viktor Andersson and TCR Europe frontrunner Teddy Clairet.
The first race of the weekend is scheduled for 16:20 CEST later today.
Qualifying
1:39.622 – Mikel Azcona (BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N EV)
1:39.656 – Norbert Michelisz (BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N EV)
1:39.788 – Yann Ehrlacher (Geely Cyan Racing, Geely Preface)
Championship points
- M. Azcona, 15 pts.; 2. N. Michelisz, 10; 3. Y. Ehrlacher, 8
Picture: WSC/Fastclick
