Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Pepe Oriola secured pole position for the first of the TCR International Series races in Valencia, with the SEAT driver finishing ahead of Target Competition trio Andrea Belicchi, Stefano Comini and Michel Nykjær.
Spaniard Oriola posted the fastest lap of the weekend to take pole on home soil, with Belicchi and Comini a tenth of a second further behind. Dane Nykjær enjoyed his strongest qualifying of the season so far to take fourth on the grid for race one.
“I’m really happy, especially after Q1,” said Oriola. “It’s my home race, and I’m really happy to be on pole position for my home race. This track is really hard to overtake, but of course everybody will try their best tomorrow.”
SEAT cars occupied the top six positions, with Craft-Bamboo’s Sergey Afanasyev and Jordi Gené taking fifth and sixth on the grid for race one respectively. Afansyev had earlier been fastest in Q1 with a lap late in the session, but the Russian failed to convert his pace into a Q2 pole.
Franz Engstler was the top non-SEAT driver in his Liqui Moly Team Engstler Audi in seventh, whilst newcomer Oscar Nogués Farré secured the best qualifying result of the season for Campos Racing by placing his Opel Astra OPC in eighth.
Completing the top ten were rookie Bas Schouten and WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli in tenth, which earned the championship leader a tactical pole position for race two.
Newcomer David Cebrián Ariza narrowly missed out on a shock pole for race two, ending up 11th, ahead of the Honda of Kevin Gleason, who had earlier been second quickest in Q1.
Missing out on entry into Q2 were Engstler’s Audi TT team-mate Mikhail Grachev, with the Russian just 0.025 seconds shy of a shot at the second part of qualifying.
The first female TCR driver, Lucile Cypriano, qualified in 14th position. WestCoast Racing’s Igor Skuz was 15th, ahead of Engstler Motorsport’s Lorenzo Veglia, who had his best lap time disallowed for exceeding the track limits, and Campos Racing’s Jordi Oriola.
Q2 times
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León Racer | 5 | 1:42.045 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 33 | Andrea BELICCHI |  |
Target Competition | SEAT León Racer | 4 | 1:42.143 | 0.098 |
| 3 | 25 | Stefano COMINI |  |
Target Competition | SEAT León Racer | 5 | 1:42.183 | 0.138 |
| 4 | 17 | Michel NYKJÆR |  |
Target Competition | SEAT León Racer | 5 | 1:42.300 | 0.255 |
| 5 | 77 | Sergey AFANASYEV |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León Racer | 5 | 1:42.537 | 0.492 |
| 6 | 88 | Jordi GENÉ | |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León Racer | 5 | 1:42.823 | 0.778 |
| 7 | 6 | Franz ENGSTLER |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Audi Sport TT Cup | 4 | 1:42.837 | 0.792 |
| 8 | 19 | Oscar NOGUÉS | |
Campos Racing | Opel Astra OPC | 4 | 1:42.866 | 0.821 |
| 9 | 34 | Bas SCHOUTEN |  |
ST Motorsport / Bas Koeten Racing | SEAT León Racer | 6 | 1:42.915 | 0.870 |
| 10 | 10 | Gianni MORBIDELLI | |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 6 | 1:42.971 | 0.926 |
| 11 | 32 | David CEBRIÁN Ariza | |
JSB Compétition | SEAT León Racer | 6 | 1:42.995 | 0.950 |
| 12 | 24 | Kevin GLEASON |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 2 | 4:52.946 | 10.901 |