Thed Björk has secured pole position for the opening FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) race on the Nürburgring Nordschleife, as YMR secured an all Hyundai front row in qualifying.
Björk posted the fastest lap of the weekend so far on his second lap in the 40-minute session, breaking the TCR qualifying lap record on a dry circuit.
His team-mate Yvan Muller was second, just 0.079 seconds behind – an impressive achievement considering the 26 kilometres and 170 turns that make up the infamous circuit.
“I need to get the start going, and many things can happen in the race,” said Björk after qualifying. “The car feels good and I’m back at the top of the game, as I struggled a little bit in Budapest, but everyone has those weekends.
“It feels really good, I’m really happy and really happy that I just beat Yvan. I don’t know how close it was, so I’m really happy to just be fighting so hard together with him.”
BRC Racing’s Norbert Michelisz made it a Hyundai 1-2-3, despite the Korean car being the heaviest on the grid as a result of being handed the maximum 60 kg of series-specific compensation weight, in addition to also being the heaviest car under TCR Balance of Performance [BoP] measures.
Münnich Motorsport’s Esteban Guerrieri was the leading Honda in fourth after being amongst the last of the drivers to improve on his final flying lap, ahead of Sébastien Loeb Racing Volkswagen driver Rob Huff in fifth.
Wildcard racer and reigning DTM champion René Rast was sixth, 1.771 seconds off the pace after having earlier been one of the favourites for pole when he topped both of the morning’s practice sessions.
A late improvement saw the second BRC Racing Hyundai of Gabriele Tarquini, who is not a fan of the Nordschleife, end up in seventh.
Scot Gordon Shedden, who endured a torrid time in the morning when he clouted the barriers on his first practice lap, was eighth – equalling a best qualifying performance to-date for the three-time BTCC champion.
Boutsen Ginion Racing’s Tom Coronel put his Honda in ninth ahead of team-mate Benjamin Lessennes in tenth, the latter having been held up slightly by rival Honda racer Yann Ehrlacher on his final qualifying lap. Ehrlacher himself ended up in 11th after improving his time at the end of the session.
Comtoyou Racing’s Aurélien Panis was one of several drivers to push beyond the limits and make contact with the barriers, ending the session in 18th. Rast also had an off into the wall but was able to continue and have his car repaired.
Zengő Motorsport endured a difficult session, with Zsolt Szabó not taking part due to his accident in practice, and Norbert Nagy ending the session in 25th after also going off on his last lap and abandoning his car on the Nordschleife.
Brit James Thompson struggled for pace in qualifying on his first competitive visit to the Nordschleife, ending up in 26th and nearly 15 seconds off the pace.
UPDATE: René Rast and Gordon Shedden were subsequently hit with 10-place grid penalties for not respecting the yellow flag zones by slowing sufficiently, dropping them to 15th and 17th respectively. Separately, Benjamin Lessennes was given a three-place grid penalty for having been deemed to have blocked Rob Huff on a fast lap.
The first WTCR race takes place at 19:45 CEST (18:45 BST) and will be broadcast live on Facebook.
Qualifying results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 11 | Thed BJÖRK |  |
YMR | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 8:58.700 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 48 | Yvan MULLER |  |
YMR | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 8:58.779 | 0.079 |
| 3 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 8:59.065 | 0.365 |
| 4 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 3 | 8:59.654 | 0.954 |
| 5 | 12 | Rob HUFF |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 3 | 8:59.909 | 1.209 |
| 6 | 33 | René RAST |  |
Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS | 4 | 9:00.471 | 1.771 |
| 7 | 30 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 9:00.728 | 2.028 |
| 8 | 52 | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS | 4 | 9:01.235 | 2.535 |
| 9 | 9 | Tom CORONEL |  |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 3 | 9:02.153 | 3.453 |
| 10 | 63 | Benjamin LESSENNES |  |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 3 | 9:02.228 | 3.528 |
| 11 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 3 | 9:02.689 | 3.989 |
| 12 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY | |
Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS | 3 | 9:03.038 | 4.338 |
| 13 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Team Oscaro by Campos Racing | CUPRA TCR | 3 | 9:04.103 | 5.403 |
| 14 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 3 | 9:04.457 | 5.757 |
| 15 | 22 | Frédéric VERVISCH | |
Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS | 3 | 9:04.909 | 6.209 |
| 16 | 20 | Denis DUPONT | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | 4 | 9:05.221 | 6.521 |
| 17 | 21 | Aurélien PANIS | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | 4 | 9:05.732 | 7.032 |
| 18 | 7 | Aurélien COMTE | |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 3 | 9:05.986 | 7.286 |
| 19 | 25 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 3 | 9:06.192 | 7.492 |
| 20 | 23 | Nathanaël BERTHON | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | 3 | 9:06.319 | 7.619 |
| 21 | 94 | Kris RICHARD |  |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 3 | 9:08.282 | 9.582 |
| 22 | 88 | Fabrizio GIOVANARDI | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 3 | 9:08.639 | 9.939 |
| 23 | 10 | Gianni MORBIDELLI | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 4 | 9:09.933 | 11.233 |
| 24 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Team Oscaro by Campos Racing | CUPRA TCR | 1 | 9:10.726 | 12.026 |
| 25 | 8 | Norbert NAGY | |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 2 | 9:10.821 | 12.121 |
| 26 | 15 | James THOMPSON | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 3 | 9:13.428 | 14.728 |
| 27 | 66 | Zsolt Dávid SZABÓ | |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |