Comtoyou Racing’s Gilles Magnus scored his maiden TCR Europe pole position ahead of fellow Audi runner Santiago Urrutia at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
In what was a disjointed qualifying session, Brutal Fish Racing Team’s Dan Lloyd set the third fastest time, but is under investigation as to whether he should have been competing in Q2 after only placing 18th in Q1.
Seemingly Lloyd had set a time good enough for Q2 just after a red flag ended the session with two minutes remaining, and the team sent him out on track for the second session. It appears likely his time of third will be deleted.
The initial confusion was caused as opening practice pacesetter Teddy Clairet should have progressed into the second session, but crashed at Raidillon and the car was not ready at the start of Q2.
With the top 12 runners going through to Q2, logically it should have been Olli Kangas competing in the session, rather than Lloyd.
Notably, championship leader Josh Files will start the opening race in 33rd after having his best time deleted due to track limits, and then crashing at Eau Rouge to end the session prematurely.
It is unknown how heavy the damage to his Hyundai is, and whether it will be repaired for race one.
Behind Lloyd’s provisional third position was Maxime Potty, who finished on the podium in the opening race at Spa last year. Rounding out the top five was 2017 BTCC champion Ash Sutton, who bounced back after having times deleted due to track limits violations in both sessions.
Next was the Peugeot duo of Aurélien Comte and Julien Briché, the latter managing to compete in Q1 despite a heavy crash in FP2 yesterday leaving the team with plenty of repairs to make overnight.
Mat’o Homola was eighth in the fastest of the Hyundai runners, ahead of Jimmy Clairet’s Peugeot while Davit Kajaia completed the top ten.
Dušan Borković is likely to start race two from reverse-grid pole, although this is provisional depending on Dan Lloyd’s eventual result.
The Serbian racer’s Target Competition stablemate Andreas Bäckman finished 12th in the second session.
The opening race of the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps is scheduled to get underway at 13:50 CEST [12:50 BST].
Q2 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 16 | Gilles MAGNUS |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 3 | 2:28.885 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 55 | Santiago URRUTIA |  |
Team WRT | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | 2:28.950 | 0.065 |
| 3 | 123 | Daniel LLOYD |  |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 3 | 2:29.209 | 0.324 |
| 4 | 88 | Maxime POTTY | |
Team WRT | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 4 | 2:29.793 | 0.908 |
| 5 | 116 | Ashley SUTTON | |
Team WRT | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 4 | 2:29.829 | 0.944 |
| 6 | 7 | Aurélien COMTE |  |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 4 | 2:29.914 | 1.029 |
| 7 | 24 | Julien BRICHÉ | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 3 | 2:30.021 | 1.136 |
| 8 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 2:30.234 | 1.349 |
| 9 | 112 | Jimmy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 4 | 2:30.248 | 1.363 |
| 10 | 3 | Davit KAJAIA |  |
PCR Sport with Georgia | CUPRA TCR | 4 | 2:30.263 | 1.378 |
| 11 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 2:30.453 | 1.568 |
| 12 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 2:31.197 | 2.312 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 55 | Santiago URRUTIA | |
Team WRT | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 7 | 2:28.994 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 88 | Maxime POTTY | |
Team WRT | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 7 | 2:29.424 | 0.430 |
| 3 | 16 | Gilles MAGNUS | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 2:29.823 | 0.829 |
| 4 | 7 | Aurélien COMTE | |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 7 | 2:29.895 | 0.901 |
| 5 | 24 | Julien BRICHÉ | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 7 | 2:29.933 | 0.939 |
| 6 | 116 | Ashley SUTTON | |
Team WRT | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 7 | 2:30.026 | 1.032 |
| 7 | 111 | Teddy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 3 | 2:30.445 | 1.451 |
| 8 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | 2:30.463 | 1.469 |
| 9 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 2:30.507 | 1.513 |
| 10 | 3 | Davit KAJAIA | |
PCR Sport with Georgia | CUPRA TCR | 7 | 2:30.705 | 1.711 |
| 11 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 2:30.796 | 1.802 |
| 12 | 112 | Jimmy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 7 | 2:30.860 | 1.866 |
| 13 | 46 | Olli KANGAS |  |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 3 | 2:30.861 | 1.867 |
| 14 | 50 | Tom CORONEL |  |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 7 | 2:30.877 | 1.883 |
| 15 | 45 | Gianni MORBIDELLI |  |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 7 | 2:30.883 | 1.889 |
| 16 | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER |  |
M1RA Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 2:30.891 | 1.897 |
| 17 | 34 | Stian PAULSEN |  |
Stian Paulsen Racing | CUPRA TCR | 6 | 2:31.135 | 2.141 |
| 18 | 123 | Daniel LLOYD | |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 7 | 2:31.262 | 2.268 |
| 19 | 12 | Nelson PANCIATICI | |
M Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 2:31.270 | 2.276 |
| 20 | 99 | Dániel NAGY |  |
M1RA Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 2:31.353 | 2.359 |
| 21 | 25 | Natan BIHEL | |
M Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 2:31.434 | 2.440 |
| 22 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | 2:31.956 | 2.962 |
| 23 | 30 | Luca FILIPPI | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | 2:32.392 | 3.398 |
| 24 | 23 | Tamás TENKE | |
Zengő Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 7 | 2:32.480 | 3.486 |
| 25 | 14 | Klim GAVRILOV |  |
VRC Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 7 | 2:32.535 | 3.541 |
| 26 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Vuković Motorsport | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 7 | 2:32.799 | 3.805 |
| 27 | 96 | Abdulla Ali AL-KHELAIFI |  |
QMMF Racing by PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 6 | 2:34.707 | 5.713 |
| 28 | 17 | Martin RYBA | |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 6 | 2:35.410 | 6.416 |
| 29 | 21 | Marie BAUS-COPPENS | |
JSB Compétition | CUPRA TCR | 7 | 2:35.426 | 6.432 |
| 30 | 38 | Lewis KENT | |
Essex & Kent Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 2:37.195 | 8.201 |
| 31 | 81 | Stéphane VENTAJA | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 6 | 2:37.453 | 8.459 |
| 32 | 44 | Lilou WADOUX | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 7 | 2:41.704 | 12.710 |
| 33 | 9 | Josh FILES | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | 2:43.094 | 14.100 |
| 34 | 10 | Viktor DAVIDOVSKY |  |
PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 3 | 5:08.651 | 39.657 |