Jordi Gené took a last-gasp pole position in qualifying for the TCR International Series in Sochi, edging out Target Competition’s Andrea Belicchi, despite the Spaniard having his best lap time disallowed for exceeding the track limits.
Gené rose to the top of the times with less than a minute remaining in the 20-minute session, which was reduced to a single session due to the limited entry list for the event.
Gené’s original fastest lap, a time of 2:20.890 was then disallowed for the Spaniard having been adjudged to have exceeded the track limits. Thankfully for Craft-Bamboo Racing his second-best time was less than a tenth slower, giving Gené his first pole of the season.
Belicchi ended up just 0.049 seconds behind in his SEAT, with Gené’s Craft-Bamboo Racing team-mate Pepe Oriola in third.
Swede Tomas Engström qualified in fourth for his TCR début, despite the Liqui Moly Team Engstler driver having been on top of the times for much of the session. His team-mate Mikhail Grachev was fifth, with the Russian unable to make full use of his local circuit knowledge.
Craft-Bamboo Racing’s Sergey Afanasyev was seventh, ahead of the top Honda of Gianni Morbidelli in eighth. The WestCoast Racing driver was the last car within a second of the pole time, with the Italian struggling for pace around the coastal circuit.
Target Competition’s Michel Nykjær and WestCoast Racing’s Kevin Gleason completed the top ten, giving the latter pole position for the second race on Sunday.
Russian one-off entrants Alexey Dudukalo and Ildar Rakhmatullin just missed out on the reverse grid draw, ending the session in 11th and 12th and on the back row of the grid for both races.
Session results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 88 | Jordi GENÉ |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León Racer | 8 | 2:20.976 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 33 | Andrea BELICCHI |  |
Target Competition | SEAT León Racer | 8 | 2:21.025 | 0.049 |
| 3 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA | |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León Racer | 8 | 2:21.256 | 0.280 |
| 4 | 4 | Tomas ENGSTRÖM |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | SEAT León Racer | 8 | 2:21.272 | 0.296 |
| 5 | 8 | Mikhail GRACHEV |  |
Liqui Moly Team Engstler | SEAT León Racer | 8 | 2:21.403 | 0.427 |
| 6 | 77 | Sergey AFANASYEV | |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León Racer | 8 | 2:21.564 | 0.588 |
| 7 | 25 | Stefano COMINI |  |
Target Competition | SEAT León Racer | 8 | 2:21.582 | 0.606 |
| 8 | 10 | Gianni MORBIDELLI | |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 8 | 2:21.658 | 0.682 |
| 9 | 17 | Michel NYKJÆR |  |
Target Competition | SEAT León Racer | 8 | 2:21.999 | 1.023 |
| 10 | 24 | Kevin GLEASON |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 8 | 2:22.136 | 1.160 |
| 11 | 2 | Aleksey DUDUKALO | |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León Racer | 8 | 2:22.283 | 1.307 |
| 12 | 26 | Ildar RAKHMATULLIN | |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 4 | 2:24.865 | 3.889 |