Norbert Michelisz claimed pole position for the final FIA World Touring Car Cup (WTCR) race at the Slovakia Ring tomorrow, with the Hyundai i30 N driver in devastating form to top all three parts of qualifying.
Q1
A late effort gave the Hungarian driver the early bragging rights, with a best time of 2:10.537s enough to edge out Race 1 winner Pepe Oriola and fellow CUPRA racer John Filippi.
The main talking point surrounded the loss of several established contenders from the fray, with Thed Bjork and Yann Ehrlacher both falling at the first hurdle, the latter by just 0.030s in the Honda Civic Type R.
Team Mulsanne had looked in good shape in the opening exchanges, but both Fabrizio Giovanardi and Kevin Ceccon failed to make the cut in the Alfa Romeo Giulietta.
Gordon Shedden endured another frustrating outing with a lively rear end on the WRT-run Audi RS 3 LMS, and will start from 22nd.
Team mate Jean-Karl Vernay made the grade, as did late improvers Norbert Nagy, Nathanael Berthon, Frederic Vervisch and Benjamin Lessennes alongside Gabriele Tarquini, Aurelien Comte, Esteban Guerierri and championship leader Yvan Muller.
Q2
Michelisz was once again in peerless form around the 3.6 mile circuit, improving marginally to lower the benchmark to 2:10.330s.
Comte and Filippi led the charge behind, with Muller and Guerierri making the cut into the final Super Pole session.
Norbert Nagy qualified at the foot of the top ten, and as a result will start the second race this evening at 18:00 BST from pole position in the CUPRA.
Pepe Oriola and Frederic Vervisch will both feel aggrieved to have missed out, with the two only denied by 0.024s – and in a dead heat with one another.
Lessennes, Berthon and Vernay were the others to fall by the wayside heading into the final part of qualifying.
Q3
For a large portion of the session it seemed Guerierri would take top spot as Muller and Filippi both tried – and failed – to wrest the Honda Civic Type R from provisional pole.
The Argentinian locked up and was forced to correct into the first corner, but his time of 2:11.078s was still unmatched until Comte took to the circuit.
The Peugeot 308 set a blistering first sector and third sector and might have taken the glory, had Michelisz not virtually matched him pace for pace in those sectors and found an additional two tenths in the long middle section of the 3.6 mile lap.
That put the popular fans favourite in prime position to round out the weekend in fashion at 10:45 BST tomorrow.
For this evening, however, he will have to once again contend with being in the thick of the action from 10th.
Comte completes the front row with Guerierri and Muller behind. Filippi rounds out the top five and will have Oriola for company, not Vervisch.
UPDATE – Esteban Guerrieri, Benjamin Lessennes and Tom Coronel later had their qualifying times disallowed as their cars did not respect the maximum boost pressure specified in the BoP chart.
Q3 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 2:10.340 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 7 | Aurélien COMTE |  |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 3 | 2:10.577 | 0.237 |
| 3 | 48 | Yvan MULLER | |
YMR | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 2:11.100 | 0.760 |
| 4 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Team Oscaro by Campos Racing | CUPRA TCR | 3 | 2:11.631 | 1.291 |
| 5 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 3 | 2:11.078 | 0.738 |
Q2 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 2:10.330 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 7 | Aurélien COMTE | |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 3 | 2:10.635 | 0.305 |
| 3 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Team Oscaro by Campos Racing | CUPRA TCR | 3 | 2:10.932 | 0.602 |
| 4 | 48 | Yvan MULLER | |
YMR | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 2:11.029 | 0.699 |
| 5 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Team Oscaro by Campos Racing | CUPRA TCR | 4 | 2:11.101 | 0.771 |
| 6 | 22 | Frédéric VERVISCH |  |
Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS | 2 | 2:11.101 | 0.771 |
| 7 | 30 | Gabriele TARQUINI |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 2:11.150 | 0.820 |
| 8 | 8 | Norbert NAGY | |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 5 | 2:11.197 | 0.867 |
| 9 | 23 | Nathanaël BERTHON | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | 2 | 2:11.255 | 0.925 |
| 10 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY | |
Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS | 3 | 2:11.433 | 1.103 |
| EX | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 4 | 2:11.077 | 0.747 |
| EX | 63 | Benjamin LESSENNES | |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 4 | 2:11.143 | 0.813 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 2:10.537 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA | |
Team Oscaro by Campos Racing | CUPRA TCR | 4 | 2:10.706 | 0.169 |
| 3 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Team Oscaro by Campos Racing | CUPRA TCR | 6 | 2:10.711 | 0.174 |
| 4 | 7 | Aurélien COMTE | |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 6 | 2:10.861 | 0.324 |
| 5 | 48 | Yvan MULLER | |
YMR | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | 2:10.922 | 0.385 |
| 6 | 8 | Norbert NAGY |  |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 6 | 2:10.944 | 0.407 |
| 7 | 22 | Frédéric VERVISCH | |
Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS | 6 | 2:11.030 | 0.493 |
| 8 | 23 | Nathanaël BERTHON |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | 6 | 2:11.089 | 0.552 |
| 9 | 30 | Gabriele TARQUINI | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 2:11.115 | 0.578 |
| 10 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY | |
Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS | 7 | 2:11.125 | 0.588 |
| 11 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 8 | 2:11.186 | 0.649 |
| 12 | 31 | Kevin CECCON | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 7 | 2:11.198 | 0.661 |
| 13 | 88 | Fabrizio GIOVANARDI | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 6 | 2:11.268 | 0.731 |
| 14 | 21 | Aurélien PANIS | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | 6 | 2:11.279 | 0.742 |
| 15 | 44 | Petr FULÍN | |
Fullin Race Academy | CUPRA TCR | 7 | 2:11.326 | 0.789 |
| 16 | 11 | Thed BJÖRK |  |
YMR | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 2:11.685 | 1.148 |
| 17 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 7 | 2:11.801 | 1.264 |
| 18 | 66 | Zsolt Dávid SZABÓ | |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 6 | 2:11.813 | 1.276 |
| 19 | 52 | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS | 7 | 2:12.028 | 1.491 |
| 20 | 20 | Denis DUPONT | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS | 7 | 2:12.169 | 1.632 |
| 21 | 25 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 4 | 2:12.197 | 1.660 |
| 22 | 12 | Rob HUFF | |
Sébastien Loeb Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 4 | 2:12.375 | 1.838 |
| 23 | 17 | Andrej STUDENIČ | |
Brutal Fish Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 8 | 2:13.666 | 3.129 |
| EX | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 7 | 2:11.047 | 0.510 |
| EX | 63 | Benjamin LESSENNES | |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 6 | 2:11.150 | 0.613 |
| EX | 9 | Tom CORONEL |  |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 8 | 2:11.624 | 1.087 |