Attila Tassi scored his and KCMG’s first-ever pole position in the FIA World Touring Car Cup on the streets of Vila Real, as team-mate Tiago Monteiro made it a Honda 1-2 at the top of the times.
Tassi edged out his more experienced team-mate by just over a tenth of a second in the Q3 one-lap shoot-out, with Monteiro having to settle for a front row start at his home race.
Lynk & Co drivers Yann Ehrlacher and Yvan Muller were next up, three and four tenths adrift respectively, whilst SLR’s Rob Huff completed the top five after going out first and failing to break below the two-minute barrier.
Despite the marque’s troubles during the weekend thus far, Jean-Karl Vernay managed to get his Audi into Q2 and qualified as the best of the RS3 drivers in sixth, missing out on Q3 by just over a tenth of a second.
Nicky Catsburg was the best Hyundai driver in seventh, ahead of PWR Racing’s Mikel Azcona in eighth.
Claiming the reverse grid pole for race two were Münnich Motorsport’s Esteban Guerrieri, who was ninth, and Team Mulsanne’s Ma Qing Hua, who was tenth. Both drivers opted not to push on their final runs, resigned to targeting the reversed-grid front row.
The second Münnich Honda of Néstor Girolami was 11th, with the Argentine not attempting another Q2 run despite having time to do so, the result confirming Guerrieri on the front row for race two.
Kevin Ceccon was the cause of a lengthy Q2 red flag stoppage when he crashed his Alfa Romeo into the barriers, denying the Italian a time which would have been good enough for the reverse grid pole but was deleted due to being the cause of the half-hour stoppage, leaving him in 12th.
Frédéric Vervisch was the leading driver not to make it through to Q2, putting his Comtoyou Racing Audi in 13th after a late improvement gained him five places.
SLR’s Johan Kristoffersson was 14th and lost out in the final seconds of the session, as did Lynk & Co racer Thed Björk in 15th and Saturday’s dominant pace-setter Norbert Michelisz, who could only manage 16th in his BRC Hyundai.
Reigning champion Gabriele Tarquini had top ten pace in Saturday’s qualifying session, but he could only manage 17th on Sunday, leaving both of the leading BRC Hyundai drivers to start races two and three in the middle of the pack.
Augusto Farfus was the biggest casualty in Q1, with the Brazilian hitting the barriers after 15 minutes and damaging the front-right of his Hyundai. With the car unable to be repaired in the session, Farfus will line up in 20th for both races.
Race two is scheduled to get underway at 15:30 WEST / BST (16:30 CEST) followed by race three at 17:00 WEST / BST (18:00 CEST).
Q3 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 9 | Attila TASSI |  |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 3 | 1:59.808 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO |  |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 3 | 1:59.949 | 0.141 |
| 3 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER |  |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 2:00.122 | 0.314 |
| 4 | 100 | Yvan MULLER | |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 2:00.286 | 0.478 |
| 5 | 12 | Rob HUFF |  |
SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 3 | 2:00.424 | 0.616 |
Q2 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 9 | Attila TASSI | |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 5 | 1:59.445 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 100 | Yvan MULLER | |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 6 | 1:59.643 | 0.198 |
| 3 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO | |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 5 | 1:59.722 | 0.277 |
| 4 | 12 | Rob HUFF | |
SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 6 | 1:59.734 | 0.289 |
| 5 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 6 | 1:59.761 | 0.316 |
| 6 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY | |
Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 1:59.918 | 0.473 |
| 7 | 88 | Nicky CATSBURG |  |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:59.936 | 0.491 |
| 8 | 96 | Mikel AZCONA |  |
PWR Racing | CUPRA TCR | 7 | 1:59.955 | 0.510 |
| 9 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI |  |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 6 | 1:59.992 | 0.547 |
| 10 | 55 | Ma QING HUA |  |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 6 | 2:00.219 | 0.774 |
| 11 | 29 | Néstor GIROLAMI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 7 | 2:00.515 | 1.070 |
| 12 | 31 | Kevin CECCON |  |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 3 | Disallowed | N/A |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 9 | Attila TASSI | |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 10 | 1:59.584 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 31 | Kevin CECCON | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 10 | 1:59.634 | 0.050 |
| 3 | 55 | Ma QING HUA | |
Team Mulsanne | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 9 | 1:59.760 | 0.176 |
| 4 | 18 | Tiago MONTEIRO | |
KCMG | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 10 | 1:59.766 | 0.182 |
| 5 | 86 | Esteban GUERRIERI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 9 | 1:59.833 | 0.249 |
| 6 | 29 | Néstor GIROLAMI | |
ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R TCR | 10 | 1:59.868 | 0.284 |
| 7 | 88 | Nicky CATSBURG | |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 1:59.916 | 0.332 |
| 8 | 96 | Mikel AZCONA | |
PWR Racing | CUPRA TCR | 7 | 1:59.934 | 0.350 |
| 9 | 68 | Yann EHRLACHER | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 11 | 2:00.032 | 0.448 |
| 10 | 12 | Rob HUFF | |
SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 10 | 2:00.048 | 0.464 |
| 11 | 100 | Yvan MULLER | |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 11 | 2:00.050 | 0.466 |
| 12 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY | |
Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 2:00.053 | 0.469 |
| 13 | 22 | Frédéric VERVISCH |  |
Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 2:00.056 | 0.472 |
| 14 | 14 | Johan KRISTOFFERSSON |  |
SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | 2:00.062 | 0.478 |
| 15 | 11 | Thed BJÖRK | |
Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 11 | 2:00.233 | 0.649 |
| 16 | 5 | Norbert MICHELISZ | |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 2:00.242 | 0.658 |
| 17 | 1 | Gabriele TARQUINI | |
BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 2:00.475 | 0.891 |
| 18 | 111 | Andy PRIAULX | |
Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 11 | 2:00.541 | 0.957 |
| 19 | 21 | Aurélien PANIS | |
Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing | CUPRA TCR | 10 | 2:00.650 | 1.066 |
| 20 | 8 | Augusto FARFUS |  |
BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | 2:00.779 | 1.195 |
| 21 | 52 | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Leopard Racing Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 2:01.119 | 1.535 |
| 22 | 33 | Benjamin LEUCHTER |  |
SLR Volkswagen | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 11 | 2:01.167 | 1.583 |
| 23 | 25 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
SLR VW Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 8 | 2:01.217 | 1.633 |
| 24 | 50 | Tom CORONEL | |
Comtoyou DHL Team CUPRA Racing | CUPRA TCR | 6 | 2:01.305 | 1.721 |
| 25 | 37 | Daniel HAGLÖF | |
PWR Racing | CUPRA TCR | 6 | 2:01.727 | 2.143 |
| 26 | 10 | Niels LANGEVELD | |
Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 10 | 2:01.956 | 2.372 |