Comtoyou Racing’s Mehdi Bennani scored a narrow pole position in qualifying for the TCR Europe series at Monza, edging out Brutal Fish Racing’s Dan Lloyd by a mere 0.035 seconds.
Bennani posted the fastest lap of the weekend so far in the second part of qualifying, his Audi lapping the fast Italian circuit in a time of 1 minute 57.168 seconds to beat the Honda of Lloyd by less than a tenth of a second.
The Moroccan’s time, at a dry and sunny Monza, came on his first run in the Q2 part of qualifying, as the majority of the field put in their best laps on their first flying lap in the crucial qualifying segment.
Championship leader Lloyd put in his best qualifying performance of the season so far as the Brit secured a front-row start for race one.
Jimmy Clairet was the best of the Peugeot drivers in third, the Frenchman three and a half tenths off the pace and edging out last year’s pole-sitter Julien Briché by half a tenth, with Briché claiming fourth.
Pepe Oriola, who had been quick early on in Q1, was fifth in his Honda, the Spaniard enjoying his best qualifying session of the year, just under half a second off the pace.
BRC Racing’s Mat’o Homola was the best Hyundai driver in sixth, ahead of Teddy Clairet’s Peugeot in seventh.
Nicolas Baert was the only other Audi driver in Q2 and qualified in eighth, with the top ten being completed by the Honda of Mike Halder and the Hyundai of John Filippi.
Filippi thus secures the reverse-grid pole position for the second race of the weekend, the Target Competition driver being the only other person within a second of the pace.
BRC’s Dániel Nagy just missed out on tenth, the Hungarian being two tenths slower than Filippi, with TCR Italy regular Felice Jelmini completing the Q2 competitors in 12th in his Hyundai.
Neither of the Bäckmans made it into Q2, with Jessica the best-placed of Target competition’s Swedish siblings in 13th, as she was almost a second and a half off the pace despite her having been fifth fastest in Friday’s second practice session.
Michelle Halder also struggled to improve on her time in Q1, putting her Profi-Car Team Halder Honda in 14th for both races.
Sometime-entrant Evgenii Leonov put his CUPRA in 15th, ahead of the returning Viktor Davidovski in 16th, the Macedonian having permission to travel to Italy this time to get his season underway two rounds later than planned.
Sami Taoufik, fourth fastest on Friday, couldn’t break below the two-minute mark on Saturday and was just 20th in his Comtoyou Racing Audi.
The all-new Fiat Tipo TCR, being raced by Luca Rangoni this weekend, was almost three seconds off the pace in 21st, just ahead of Tecnodom Sport’s other car of Kevin Giacon’s Audi in 22nd.
Perhaps the biggest name to fail to post a meaningful time in Q1 was Andreas Bäckman, the Swede suffering from a hand injury after his Zolder crash two weeks’ ago and languishing down in 23rd after his inury prevented him from posting a competitive lap.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 17:15 CEST (16:15 BST).
Q2 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 250 | Mehdi BENNANI |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | 1:57.168 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 123 | Daniel LLOYD |  |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 4 | 1:57.203 | 0.035 |
| 3 | 21 | Jimmy CLAIRET |  |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 4 | 1:57.515 | 0.347 |
| 4 | 24 | Julien BRICHÉ | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 4 | 1:57.580 | 0.412 |
| 5 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA |  |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 4 | 1:57.653 | 0.485 |
| 6 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 1:57.800 | 0.632 |
| 7 | 20 | Teddy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 4 | 1:57.809 | 0.641 |
| 8 | 8 | Nicolas BAERT |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 3 | 1:57.886 | 0.718 |
| 9 | 7 | Mike HALDER |  |
Profi Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 4 | 1:57.986 | 0.818 |
| 10 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 1:58.093 | 0.925 |
| 11 | 99 | Dániel NAGY |  |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 1:58.316 | 1.148 |
| 12 | 44 | Felice JELMINI |  |
PMA Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 1:58.370 | 1.202 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 250 | Mehdi BENNANI | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 1:57.290 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 21 | Jimmy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 8 | 1:57.419 | 0.129 |
| 3 | 123 | Daniel LLOYD | |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 8 | 1:57.562 | 0.272 |
| 4 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:57.733 | 0.443 |
| 5 | 24 | Julien BRICHÉ | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 8 | 1:57.739 | 0.449 |
| 6 | 20 | Teddy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 8 | 1:57.843 | 0.553 |
| 7 | 74 | Pepe ORIOLA | |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 8 | 1:57.926 | 0.636 |
| 8 | 99 | Dániel NAGY | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:57.959 | 0.669 |
| 9 | 44 | Felice JELMINI | |
PMA Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:57.994 | 0.704 |
| 10 | 7 | Mike HALDER | |
Profi Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 6 | 1:58.190 | 0.900 |
| 11 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:58.373 | 1.083 |
| 12 | 8 | Nicolas BAERT | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 1:58.387 | 1.097 |
| 13 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:58.715 | 1.425 |
| 14 | 53 | Michelle HALDER | |
Profi Car Team Halder | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 9 | 1:58.781 | 1.491 |
| 15 | 16 | Evgenii LEONOV |  |
Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA TCR | 10 | 1:58.936 | 1.646 |
| 16 | 10 | Viktor DAVIDOVSKI |  |
PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 8 | 1:59.028 | 1.738 |
| 17 | 17 | Martin RYBA | |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 8 | 1:59.469 | 2.179 |
| 18 | 81 | Stéphane VENTAJA | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 1:59.663 | 2.373 |
| 19 | 66 | Gilles COLOMBANI | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 1:59.680 | 2.390 |
| 20 | 25 | Sami TAOUFIK | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 3 | 2:00.084 | 2.794 |
| 21 | 64 | Luca RANGONI | |
Tecnodom Sport | Fiat Tipo TCR | 9 | 2:00.180 | 2.890 |
| 22 | 15 | Kevin GIACON | |
Tecnodom Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 2:01.541 | 4.251 |
| 23 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 2:02.479 | 5.189 |
| 24 | 6 | Jean Laurent NAVARRO | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |