21-year old Mike Halder (Wolf-Power Racing, SEAT) has beaten Niels Langeveld (Racing One, Audi) and TCR Germany championship leader Josh Files (Target Competition, Honda) to pole position in Friday’s qualifying session at the Nürburgring.
The front row for Saturday’s first of two races is set to be occupied by Halder and Langeveld, with Files sitting in third. The Britton will share the second starting row with Dino Calcum (Schläppi Race-Tec, Opel).
Sandro Kaibach, racing for Aust Motorsport Audi, set the fifth fastest lap and will start the race in front of sixth placed Harald Prozcyk (HP Racing, SEAT), the 2016 TCR Germany vice champion.
Steve Kirsch (ADAC Sachsen, Honda) qualified to start the first race of the weekend from seventh, while Sheldon van der Linde (AC 1927 Mayen, Audi) will have to start his hunt for the podium from eighth.
Audi LMS Racing’s Antti Buri won at the Nürburgring last season, but will need to work out a good strategy in order to repeat the trick in tomorrow’s race. The Fin might find better circumstances in race two on Sunday, when the top ten qualifiers of Friday’s qualifying session will start in reversed positions.
Which also means that Max Hofer of the AC 1927 Mayen team, who turned the tenth quickest lap, will have the privilege to start Sunday’s race from reverse-grid pole position.
The two Honda cars of Jürgen Schmarl (Target Competition) in eleventh and Moritz Oestreich (ADAC Sachsen) in twelfth, completed the twelve fastest drivers who have made the cut into the shoot-out session.
Race one at the Nürburgring will go green on Saturday at 12:00 CEST (local time, 11:00 BST).
Q2 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 7 | Mike HALDER |  |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 6 | 1:35.416 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 14 | Niels LANGEVELD |  |
Racing One | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 1:35.458 | 0.042 |
| 3 | 1 | Josh FILES |  |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 6 | 1:35.485 | 0.069 |
| 4 | 36 | Dino CALCUM | |
Schläppi Race-Tec | Opel Astra TCR | 6 | 1:35.586 | 0.170 |
| 5 | 44 | Sandro KAIBACH | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 1:35.633 | 0.217 |
| 6 | 22 | Harald PROCZYK |  |
HP Racing | SEAT León TCR | 6 | 1:35.654 | 0.238 |
| 7 | 41 | Steve KIRSCH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 6 | 1:35.693 | 0.277 |
| 8 | 18 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE |  |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 1:35.716 | 0.300 |
| 9 | 10 | Antti BURI |  |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 1:35.754 | 0.338 |
| 10 | 19 | Max HOFER | |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 1:36.062 | 0.646 |
| 11 | 11 | Jürgen SCHMARL | |
Target Competition AUT-POR | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 6 | 1:36.119 | 0.703 |
| 12 | 88 | Moritz OESTREICH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 5 | 1:36.196 | 0.780 |
Qualifying Group A results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 36 | Dino CALCUM | |
Schläppi Race-Tec | Opel Astra TCR | 5 | 1:35.561 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 88 | Moritz OESTREICH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 7 | 1:35.704 | 0.143 |
| 3 | 22 | Harald PROCZYK | |
HP Racing | SEAT León TCR | 8 | 1:35.746 | 0.185 |
| 4 | 10 | Antti BURI | |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 1:35.767 | 0.206 |
| 5 | 19 | Max HOFER | |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 1:35.819 | 0.258 |
| 6 | 11 | Jürgen SCHMARL | |
Target Competition AUT-POR | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 12 | 1:35.828 | 0.267 |
| 7 | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 9 | 1:35.868 | 0.307 |
| 8 | 78 | Fabian DANZ |  |
Schläppi Race-Tec | SEAT León Cup Racer | 12 | 1:35.988 | 0.427 |
| 9 | 28 | Pascal EBERLE | |
Steibel Motorsport | SEAT León TCR | 10 | 1:36.040 | 0.479 |
| 10 | 38 | Jason WOLFE |  |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 10 | 1:36.144 | 0.583 |
| 11 | 35 | Rudolf RHYN | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 11 | 1:36.159 | 0.598 |
| 12 | 20 | Niko KANKKUNEN | |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 1:36.198 | 0.637 |
| 13 | 66 | Ronny JOST | |
TOPCAR Sport | SEAT León TCR | 12 | 1:36.208 | 0.647 |
| 14 | 27 | José RODRIGUES |  |
Target Competition AUT-POR | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 11 | 1:36.251 | 0.690 |
| 15 | 26 | Tony WOLF | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 1:36.543 | 0.982 |
| 16 | 3 | Gosia RDEST |  |
Target Competition SWE-POL | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 1:36.741 | 1.180 |
| 17 | 64 | Sven MARKERT | |
GermanFLAVOURS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 1:36.928 | 1.367 |
| 18 | 82 | Thomas KRAMWINKEL | |
GermanFLAVOURS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 1:37.040 | 1.479 |
| 19 | 32 | Gustavo XAVIER | |
Young Driver Challenge | SEAT León TCR | 12 | 1:38.054 | 2.493 |
Qualifying Group B results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 1 | Josh FILES | |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 4 | 1:35.273 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 41 | Steve KIRSCH | |
Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 9 | 1:35.280 | 0.007 |
| 3 | 7 | Mike HALDER | |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 5 | 1:35.577 | 0.304 |
| 4 | 44 | Sandro KAIBACH | |
Aust Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 1:35.665 | 0.392 |
| 5 | 14 | Niels LANGEVELD | |
Racing One | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 1:35.679 | 0.406 |
| 6 | 18 | Sheldon VAN DER LINDE | |
AC 1927 Mayen e.V. im ADAC | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 1:35.686 | 0.413 |
| 7 | 17 | Jasmin PREISIG | |
Lubner Motorsport | Opel Astra TCR | 11 | 1:35.693 | 0.420 |
| 8 | 42 | Lukas NIEDERTSCHEIDER | |
Niedertscheider MSP | SEAT León TCR | 12 | 1:35.930 | 0.657 |
| 9 | 98 | Tom LAUTENSCHLAGER | |
Target Competition GER | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 1:36.050 | 0.777 |
| 10 | 99 | Tim ZIMMERMANN | |
Target Competition GER | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 1:36.177 | 0.904 |
| 11 | 94 | Kris RICHARD | |
Target Competition UK-SUI | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 12 | 1:36.205 | 0.932 |
| 12 | 13 | Kai JORDAN | |
Racing One | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 11 | 1:36.475 | 1.202 |
| 13 | 39 | Florian THOMA | |
Junior Team Engstler | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 10 | 1:36.476 | 1.203 |
| 14 | 2 | Alex MORGAN | |
Wolf-Power Racing 2 | SEAT León TCR | 11 | 1:36.479 | 1.206 |
| 15 | 12 | Simon LARSSON |  |
Target Competition SWE-POL | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 1:36.971 | 1.698 |
| 16 | 54 | Simon REICHER | |
Certainty Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 1:37.171 | 1.898 |
| 17 | 9 | Stefan GOEDE | |
Team Engstler USA | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 11 | 1:37.364 | 2.091 |
| 18 | 40 | Dillon KOSTER | |
Certainty Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 1:37.464 | 2.191 |
| 19 | 84 | Maurits SANDBERG | |
Racing One 2 | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 1:37.500 | 2.227 |
| 20 | 23 | Sebastien STEIBEL | |
Steibel Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf Gti TCR | 0 | No time |