World Rally Championship star Thierry Neuville claimed pole position at his first time of asking in ADAC TCR Germany at the Nürburgring, denying fellow Hyundai racer Max Hesse by just 0.037 seconds.
Neuville topped both the Q1 and Q2 sessions in his first qualifying session in a TCR car, as the Belgian guest driver proved that he can quickly adapt to the series.
“We already knew from the tests that we are very fast here,” said Neuville. “My laps were also very good, so that was a great qualifying session for me.
“I did not set a specific goal for the race now, because I do not know how close and intense it is in the series.”
Hesse, who was victorious last weekend at Zandvoort, put his Engstler Hyundai in second, ahead of the Honda of Mike Halder in third, who prevented Hyundai machines completely dominating the session.
Frenchman Theo Coicaud was fourth, ahead of Austrian HP Racing duo Harald Proczyk and Lukas Niedertscheider in fifth and sixth respectively.
Points leader Antti Buri was seventh fastest in his Audi, over six tenths off the pace in Q2 after having been third fastest in Q1.
Dominik Fugel, who put his Honda on pole last weekend at Zandvoort, was just eighth, whilst the leading Volkswagen of Mitchell Cheah and the best CUPRA of series returnee Pascal Eberle completed the top ten, giving Eberle the reverse-grid pole position for race two on his return.
Also returning to the series this weekend is Kai Jordan, racing the second VW Team Oettinger Golf in place of Maurits Sandberg. Jordan made it through to Q2 but qualified in 12th for both races.
TOPCAR Sport has entered a second CUPRA for Swiss racer Karen Gaillard – she qualified in 17th on her début, ahead of the Honda of Bradley Burns in 18th, with the Brit having a difficult session with limited running.
Swiss returnee Jörg Schori has taken over the Lubner Motorsport Opel freed up by Jan Seyffert’s switch to LADA machinery, qualifying as the slowest of all in 19th position.
Race one gets underway at 13:15 CEST (12:15 BST).
Q2 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 104 | Thierry NEUVILLE |  |
Hyundai Team Engstler 2 | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:33.808 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 19 | Max HESSE |  |
Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | 1:33.845 | 0.037 |
| 3 | 7 | Mike HALDER | |
Profi-Car Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 3 | 1:34.046 | 0.238 |
| 4 | 27 | Theo COICAUD |  |
Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:34.051 | 0.243 |
| 5 | 1 | Harald PROCZYK |  |
HP Racing International | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:34.092 | 0.284 |
| 6 | 42 | Lukas NIEDERTSCHEIDER | |
HP Racing International | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:34.336 | 0.528 |
| 7 | 13 | Antti BURI |  |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 5 | 1:34.424 | 0.616 |
| 8 | 88 | Dominik FUGEL | |
Profi-Car Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 4 | 1:34.481 | 0.673 |
| 9 | 29 | Mitchell CHEAH Min Jie |  |
VW Team Oettinger | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 5 | 1:34.790 | 0.982 |
| 10 | 28 | Pascal EBERLE |  |
Steibel Motorsport 2 | CUPRA TCR | 5 | 1:34.884 | 1.076 |
| 11 | 22 | Julien APOTHÉLOZ | |
TOPCAR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 6 | 1:34.939 | 1.131 |
| 12 | 50 | Kai JORDAN | |
VW Team Oettinger | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 5 | 1:35.386 | 1.578 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 104 | Thierry NEUVILLE | |
Hyundai Team Engstler 2 | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 11 | 1:33.815 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 19 | Max HESSE | |
Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | 1:34.294 | 0.479 |
| 3 | 13 | Antti BURI | |
LMS Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 1:34.572 | 0.757 |
| 4 | 7 | Mike HALDER | |
Profi-Car Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 10 | 1:34.614 | 0.799 |
| 5 | 27 | Theo COICAUD | |
Hyundai Team Engstler | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:34.633 | 0.818 |
| 6 | 1 | Harald PROCZYK | |
HP Racing International | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:34.691 | 0.876 |
| 7 | 42 | Lukas NIEDERTSCHEIDER | |
HP Racing International | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 1:34.762 | 0.947 |
| 8 | 28 | Pascal EBERLE | |
Steibel Motorsport 2 | CUPRA TCR | 5 | 1:34.861 | 1.046 |
| 9 | 29 | Mitchell CHEAH Min Jie | |
VW Team Oettinger | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 8 | 1:34.908 | 1.093 |
| 10 | 22 | Julien APOTHÉLOZ | |
TOPCAR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 12 | 1:34.948 | 1.133 |
| 11 | 88 | Dominik FUGEL | |
Profi-Car Team Honda ADAC Sachsen | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 12 | 1:34.965 | 1.150 |
| 12 | 50 | Kai JORDAN | |
VW Team Oettinger | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | 1:35.000 | 1.185 |
| 13 | 53 | Michelle HALDER | |
Profi-Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 13 | 1:35.065 | 1.250 |
| 14 | 23 | Sebastian STEIBEL | |
Steibel Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 13 | 1:35.281 | 1.466 |
| 15 | 8 | René KIRCHER | |
racing one | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 1:35.468 | 1.653 |
| 16 | 98 | Jan SEYFFERT | |
Lubner Motorsport | LADA Vesta TCR | 13 | 1:35.962 | 2.147 |
| 17 | 30 | Karen GAILLARD | |
TOPCAR Sport 2 | CUPRA TCR | 13 | 1:37.556 | 3.741 |
| 18 | 6 | Bradley BURNS |  |
Team Pyro Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 7 | 1:37.568 | 3.753 |
| 19 | 61 | Jörg SCHORI | |
Lubner Motorsport 2 | Opel Astra TCR | 13 | 1:38.701 | 4.886 |