WTCR Zandvoort: Rob Huff takes pole position for race one

Huff was one of the half hour session's early pacesetters in his Volkswagen Golf GTi, and returned to the head of the times after a mid-session stoppage - to retrieve Zsolt Szabo's Zengo Motorsport Cupra from the gravel at the Renaultbocht right-hander - with a 1m44.141s lap.

First practice pacesetter Ehrlacher was able to nose his Munnich Motorsport Honda Civic back ahead on his penultimate run, but Sebastien Loeb Racing driver Huff had more to come and reeled off a 1m43.945s to secure pole before sitting out the final minutes of the session.

Ehrlacher stayed out for another attempt but was unable to improve on his time and ended up 0.113 seconds back in second, ahead of three-time British Touring Car champion Shedden.

Audi driver Shedden produced comfortably his best qualifying performance since joining the WTCR world cup grid for 2018, and will head an all-WRT second row at the start of Sunday's race from team-mate Jean-Karl Vernay.

Benjamin Lessennes continued his impressive patch of form in his Boutsen Ginion Honda to grab fifth, qualifying less than four tenths off the pace, ahead of the leading Comtoyou Audi RS3 LMS of Nathanael Berthon.

A Peugeot 308TCR will start a WTCR race from inside the top 10 for the first time thanks to Aurelien Comte's 1m44.531s effort in his DG Sport machine, which was enough to give him seventh ahead of home favourite Tom Coronel.

Frederic Vervisch and Ehrlacher's team-mate Esteban Guerrieri rounded out the top 10.

After Hyundai appeared to struggle in Saturday's pair of qualifying sessions, Norbert Michelisz showed improved pace in his BRC Racing car and will start 14th - five places ahead of the next best i30 N, YMR's Thed Bjork.

James Thompson was the final driver to qualify within a second of Huff's time and will start 15th, ahead of the leading Alfa Romeo and Cupra representatives of Gianni Morbidelli and Pepe Oriola.

Wildcard entrants Michael Verhagen and Prince Bernhard van Oranje qualified 25th and 27th respectively in their Bas Koeten-run Audi RS3 LMSs.

Race one grid

Pos	Driver	Team	Car	Gap	Laps
1	Rob Huff	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Volkswagen	1m43.945s	10
2	Yann Ehrlacher	Munnich Motorsport	Honda	0.113s	12
3	Gordon Shedden	WRT	Audi	0.157s	10
4	Jean-Karl Vernay	WRT	Audi	0.307s	13
5	Benjamin Lessennes	Boutsen Ginion Racing	Honda	0.395s	14
6	Nathanael Berthon	Comtoyou Racing	Audi	0.543s	12
7	Aurelien Comte	DG Sport Competition	Peugeot	0.586s	10
8	Tom Coronel	Boutsen Ginion Racing	Honda	0.651s	12
9	Frederic Vervisch	Comtoyou Racing	Audi	0.652s	9
10	Esteban Guerrieri	Munnich Motorsport	Honda	0.654s	13
11	Mehdi Bennani	Sebastien Loeb Racing	Volkswagen	0.726s	10
12	Aurelien Panis	Comtoyou Racing	Audi	0.744s	11
13	Denis Dupont	Comtoyou Racing	Audi	0.774s	12
14	Norbert Michelisz	BRC Racing Team	Hyundai	0.845s	10
15	James Thompson	Munnich Motorsport	Honda	0.994s	13
16	Gianni Morbidelli	Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo	1.030s	12
17	Pepe Oriola	Campos Racing	Cupra	1.157s	12
18	John Filippi	Campos Racing	Cupra	1.183s	11
19	Thed Bjork	YMR	Hyundai	1.250s	13
20	Fabrizio Giovanardi	Team Mulsanne	Alfa Romeo	1.442s	11
21	Yvan Muller	YMR	Hyundai	1.506s	11
22	Mat'o Homola	DG Sport Competition	Peugeot	1.590s	9
23	Norbert Nagy	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra	1.662s	13
24	Gabriele Tarquini	BRC Racing Team	Hyundai	1.677s	10
25	Michael Verhagen	Bas Koeten Racing	Audi	1.798s	13
26	Zsolt Szabo	Zengo Motorsport	Cupra	2.237s	2
27	Bernhard van Oranje	Bas Koeten Racing	Audi	2.658s	13