Néstor Girolami claimed pole position for the first race at Macau, as well as his first one in this year’s Kumho FIA TCR World Tour with a sensational last-gasp run to deprive championship leader Yann Ehrlacher of the top spot on the grid for Race 1.
The Argentine driver set a time of 2:28.640 just under the chequered flag, to go three-tenths of a second faster of Ehrlacher, who had chosen not to defend the time he had set on his first run and had remained in the pit lane after clipping the wall at San Francisco.
Ehrlacher’s teammate and title rival Thed Björk was third quickest and dropped two points in the title battle to Ehrlacher, with the gap now increased to 36 points. This means Ehrlacher just needs to stay ahead of Björk in tomorrow’s race to secure the drivers’ title.
The second part of qualifying also saw jostling for the pole of the reversed-grid Race 2, as several drivers attempted to place themselves in tenth, which eventually went to Macau first-timer Josh Buchan.
There had been drama right from the start of Q2, as Mikel Azcona, who had set the fastest time in Q1, clipped the wall and was forced to pit; he eventually went back out on track with a hastily repaired car and qualified seventh.
The best-placed of the GOAT Racing Honda cars was Ignacio Montenegro who qualified a brilliant fifth on his maiden appearance in Macau, just ahead of his teammate Esteban Guerrieri.
In Q1, the surprise names to miss the cut to progress to Q2 were both the returning Pepe Oriola and Aurélien Comte. Comte just missed out by a tenth of a second on his final run, encountering traffic at the final corner and was also weighed down with the maximum 40kg of compensation weight. Oriola was trying to improve on his final run when he hit the wall at Moorish Hill; he damaged the rear of his Honda and had to settle for 14th. Their troubles meant that Lo Sze Ho and Max Hart were both able to advance to Q2.
Ryan MacMillan also had a difficult session, with the Australian qualifying down in 16th and caused the only red flag in the session after he hit the wall at Mandarin.
The first race of the weekend takes place at 13:20 local time on Saturday (06:20 CET).
Qualifying
2:28.640 Néstor Girolami (BRC Hyundai Squadra Corse, Hyundai Elantra N)
2:28.947 Yann Ehrlacher (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL)
2:29.308 Thed Björk (Lynk & Co Cyan Racing, Lynk & Co 03 FL)
Championship points – TCR World Tour
- Y. Ehrlacher, 456 pts; 2. T. Björk, 420; 3. E. Guerrieri, 347
Picture: WSC/Jun Qian Motorsport
