Pepe Oriola took his first pole position of the 2016 TCR International Series season by just 0.001 seconds in qualifying in Thailand, giving the Craft-Bamboo Racing driver the championship lead.
Oriola, who had earlier been fourth fastest in Q1, was on top throughout the short 10-minute Q2 session, posting his time on his first run in the session to beat WestCoast Racing’s Gianni Morbidelli to pole position by just 0.001 seconds.
The Italian had been second fastest on his first lap, before going a tenth faster in the closing seconds of the session, but just missing out on pole by the smallest of margins in the closest-ever TCR qualifying session.
Leopard Racing duo Jean-Karl Vernay and Stefano Comini put their Volkswagen Golf GTi cars on the second row of the grid in third and fourth, having been consistently close to the top of the times all day.
Mat’o Homola was the leading B3 Racing driver in fifth, heading up a SEAT trio of James Nash in his repaired Craft-Bamboo car in sixth and the second B3 Racing León of Dušan Borković in seventh.
The leading local Thai racer was Kantadhee Kusiri in eighth, the Honda Civic racer having shown strong pace all day.
Completing the top ten, and starting on the reverse-grid front row for race two, were Russian duo Sergey Afanasyev and Mikhail Grachev in their Craft-Bamboo SEAT and WestCoast Racing Honda respectively.
The third B3 car of Attila Tassi and Mulsanne Racing’s Petr Fulín just missed out on the reverse grid and will start 11th and 12th – Fulín after having only just edged into Q2 during the final seconds of Q1.
Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Davit Kajaia, who had earlier stopped at the exit of the pitlane with a problem on his Volkswagen Golf, was knocked out of Q2 in the last seconds by Fulín’s lap, leaving the Georgian racer to start from 13th, ahead of Vattana Motorsport’s Jack Lemvard in 14th.
WestCoast Racing’s Rafaël Galiana was 16th fastest, having suffered from a spin near the end of the session and both of his front tyres being punctured.
Top Run Motorsport had the target of getting into Q2, but Luigi Ferrara fell short, putting his Subaru WRX STi in just 19th, 1.9 seconds off the pace.
Round 15 of the 2016 TCR International Series takes place at 12:35 local time on Sunday 28 August (06:35 BST, 07:35 CEST).
Q2 times
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 6 | 1:43.634 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 10 | Gianni MORBIDELLI |  |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 6 | 1:43.635 | 0.001 |
| 3 | 2 | Jean-Karl VERNAY |  |
Leopard Racing | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 6 | 1:43.767 | 0.133 |
| 4 | 1 | Stefano COMINI |  |
Leopard Racing | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 6 | 1:43.885 | 0.251 |
| 5 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 5 | 1:43.927 | 0.293 |
| 6 | 54 | James NASH |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 6 | 1:43.994 | 0.360 |
| 7 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 5 | 1:44.066 | 0.432 |
| 8 | 15 | Kantadhee KUSIRI |  |
Eakie BBR Kaiten | Honda Civic TCR | 5 | 1:44.104 | 0.470 |
| 9 | 77 | Sergey AFANASYEV |  |
Team Craft-Bamboo LUKOIL | SEAT León TCR | 6 | 1:44.344 | 0.710 |
| 10 | 8 | Mikhail GRACHEV | |
West Coast Racing | Honda Civic TCR | 6 | 1:44.397 | 0.763 |
| 11 | 9 | Attila TASSI |  |
B3 Racing Team Hungary | SEAT León TCR | 4 | 1:44.532 | 0.898 |
| 12 | 22 | Petr FULÍN |  |
Mulsanne Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 3 | No time | N/A |