Slovakia WTCR: Gabriele Tarquini leads Hyundai qualifying dominance
Gabriele Tarquini will start Saturday's opening World Touring Car Cup race at the Slovakia Ring from pole after he and BRC Racing Hyundai team-mate Norbert Michelisz dominated qualifying
Tarquini beat Michelisz's long-standing benchmark by 0.352 seconds with his final lap at the end of the session, securing his second pole of the season with a fastest time of 2m09.312s.
The BRC pair both completed two runs in their Hyundai i30 Ns and were comfortably quickest of all, with third-place qualifier and championship leader Yvan Muller more than six tenths slower than Michelisz and close to a second off Tarquini's time in his i30 N.
Aurelien Comte qualified best of the rest in his DG Sport Peugeot 308TCR in fourth, 1.014s off the pace, while Pepe Oriola (Campos Racing Cupra) and Esteban Guerrieri (Munnich Motorsport Honda Civic) were fifth and sixth.
Muller's team-mate Thed Bjork was seventh with his one and only run at the start of the session, but will start the first race of the weekend from the back of the grid after YMR elected to change his Hyundai's engine.
That means WRT driver Jean-Karl Vernay moves up to head row four in the fastest of the Audi RS3 LMSs, with the respective Boutsen Ginion and Munnich Civics of Tom Coronel and title hopeful Yann Ehrlacher eighth and ninth.
Fresh from a first WTCR victory in Vila Real three weeks ago, Mato Homola qualified 11th for the first race at his home venue.
Fabrizio Giovanardi equalled the Team Mulsanne Alfa Romeo outfit's best qualifying of the season so far and will start race one from 14th, six places ahead of new team-mate Kevin Ceccon.
Sebastien Loeb Racing drivers Rob Huff and Mehdi Bennani were 23rd and 24th in their new Volkswagen Golf GTIs, which were delivered to the team then built up after the pair's huge shunt in the opening race at Vila Real.
Huff qualified 2.531s off the pace, with Bennani a further half a second back.
John Filippi avoided a grid penalty for an engine change but failed to set a time in qualifying after beaching his Campos Racing Cupra in the gravel on his first qualifying effort, causing a short red flag.
Race one qualifying
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gabriele Tarquini | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai | 2m09.312s | - |
| 2 | Aurelien Comte | DG Sport Competition | Peugeot | 2m10.326s | 1.014s |
| 3 | Pepe Oriola | Campos Racing | Cupra | 2m10.475s | 1.163s |
| 4 | Esteban Guerrieri | Munnich Motorsport | Honda | 2m10.487s | 1.175s |
| 5 | Jean-Karl Vernay | WRT | Audi | 2m10.565s | 1.253s |
| 6 | Tom Coronel | Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda | 2m10.752s | 1.440s |
| 7 | Yann Ehrlacher | Munnich Motorsport | Honda | 2m10.870s | 1.558s |
| 8 | Mat'o Homola | DG Sport Competition | Peugeot | 2m11.030s | 1.718s |
| 9 | Aurelien Panis | Comtoyou Racing | Audi | 2m11.170s | 1.858s |
| 10 | Denis Dupont | Comtoyou Racing | Audi | 2m11.199s | 1.887s |
| 11 | Nathanael Berthon | Comtoyou Racing | Audi | 2m11.230s | 1.918s |
| 12 | Fabrizio Giovanardi | Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo | 2m11.284s | 1.972s |
| 13 | Benjamin Lessennes | Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda | 2m11.368s | 2.056s |
| 14 | Frederic Vervisch | Comtoyou Racing | Audi | 2m11.414s | 2.102s |
| 15 | Norbert Nagy | Zengo Motorsport | Cupra | 2m11.514s | 2.202s |
| 16 | Petr Fulin | Fulin Race Academy | Cupra | 2m11.516s | 2.204s |
| 17 | Gordon Shedden | WRT | Audi | 2m11.646s | 2.334s |
| 18 | Kevin Ceccon | Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo | 2m11.676s | 2.364s |
| 19 | Zsolt Szabo | Zengo Motorsport | Cupra | 2m11.808s | 2.496s |
| 20 | Rob Huff | Sebastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen | 2m11.843s | 2.531s |
| 21 | Mehdi Bennani | Sebastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen | 2m12.366s | 3.054s |
| 22 | Andrej Studenic | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Volkswagen | 2m13.529s | 4.217s |
| - | John Filippi | Campos Racing | Cupra | - | - |
| - | Norbert Michelisz | BRC Racing Team | Hyundai | - | - |
| - | Yvan Muller | YMR | Hyundai | - | - |
| - | Thed Bjork | YMR | Hyundai | - | - |
Loeb VWs ready for Slovakia after WTCR crash but Thompson missing
Three Hyundais excluded from Slovakia WTCR qualifying for boost issues
The much-loved tin-top superstar bowing out at 59
OPINION: It's not often that a driver achieves widespread affection for their personality, as well as their on-track performances. One such individual is Gabriele Tarquini, who will soon bring the curtain down on a remarkable career that has yielded touring car titles on the European and global stage - and, famously, in Britain too
Why the new electric tin-top series deserves to be taken seriously
The new Pure ETCR series will get underway at Vallelunga this weekend featuring great looking cars, top drivers and real tracks. Its format is wacky, but it exists in an era when its petrol-fuelled brethren are all artificially contrived, and has the potential to move the tin-top game on
The tin-top champion who doesn't know the meaning of retirement
The news is out that three-time World Touring Car champion Andy Priaulx is stepping down from full-time racing. But he's still got plenty of mileage left him in yet, and his son has much more
The phoenix driver who is at peace with his defeats
Esteban Guerrieri spent years trying to make it in single-seaters, and came closer than you'd think to making it to F1. Now he's forging a successful tin-top career, but it's his philosophical approach to defeat and personal growth that is truly impressive
The surprise team orders twisting a world title battle
Team orders in major touring car racing are nothing unusual with manufacturer honour at stake. But in the 2019 World Touring Cars title fight, one team is raising eyebrows with the choices it is making
The 'weapon' clash that turned a world title battle bitter
Emotions ran high at Suzuka last weekend between two teams gunning for global tin-top bragging rights, and little has been done to cool those tensions since. While that's great news for WTCR, is there a danger of both outfits losing sight of their main aim?
How WTCR's last real independent has stayed in play
The World Touring Car Cup has gone from strength to strength for 2019 - but one small team in particular is proving time and again that it merits a place alongside the series' big hitters
The lessons World Touring Cars must heed from history
The WTCR has made a massive step up in quality ahead of its second season in its current format, but as manufacturers start to lock horns is it already in danger of repeating other great touring car series' mistakes?