Mitchell Cheah claims maiden pole position on TCR Germany return

Malaysia’s Mitchell Cheah claimed his first pole position in the ADAC TCR Germany series on his return to the championship, where he is standing in for Nico Gruber at the Red Bull Ring.

Cheah took part in the full season in 2019, but this weekend marks the young Malaysian’s first participation in the current season, where he is racing a Hyundai i30 N for Engstler Motorsport.

In Q1 it was actually Hyundai’s ‘VIP’ guest driver Patrick Simon, a journalist and commentator, who set the pace, with a time of 1 minute 38.051 seconds around the Austrian circuit.

Cheah, who had been sixth in Q1, then went half a second quicker in Q2 to claim his first pole, ahead of Hyundai Team Engstler regular Antti Buri, who was a tenth slower.

2018 champion Harald Proczyk was third quickest, whilst Simon posted the fourth best time as Hyundai cars locked out the top four positions.

Guest driver and TCR Eastern Europe regular Sandro Soubek was fifth quickest in the series’ sole Audi, over six tenths off the pace.

René Kircher was the leading Volkswagen driver in sixth, ahead of HP Racing’s Jan Seyffert in seventh.

Championship leader Dominik Fugel was eifhth fastest in the leading Honda, whilst the top ten was completed by Lithuanian Dziugas Tovilavicius’ Volkswagen and the Honda of Marcel Fugel, with the German not posting a lap time in the session.

The reversed-grid for race two on Sunday will thus see Marcel Fugel line up on pole, with Tovilavicius alongside.

Team Wimmer Werk Motorsport return to the grid this weekend with three CUPRAs, and Team Principal Felix Wimmer was the quickest of the trio in 12^th, just over a second and a half off the pace.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 17:05 CEST (16:05 BST).

Q2 results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	29	Mitchell CHEAH Min Jie		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	6	1:37.582	0.000
2	13	Antti BURI		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	5	1:37.691	0.109
3	2	Harald PROCZYK		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	4	1:37.994	0.412
4	102	Patrick SIMON		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	4	1:38.098	0.516
5	23	Sandro SOUBEK		MAIR Racing Osttirol	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	4	1:38.190	0.608
6	8	René KIRCHER		Volkswagen Team Oettinger	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	4	1:38.209	0.627
7	98	Jan SEYFFERT		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	3	1:38.252	0.670
8	88	Dominik FUGEL		Profi Car Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	5	1:38.364	0.782
9	92	Dziugas TOVILAVICIUS		SKUBA RACING TEAM	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	5	1:38.736	1.154
10	55	Marcel FUGEL		Profi Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	2	No time	N/A

Q1 results

POS	NO	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	102	Patrick SIMON		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	1:38.051	0.000
2	13	Antti BURI		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	1:38.249	0.198
3	88	Dominik FUGEL		Profi Car Honda ADAC Sachsen	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	10	1:38.276	0.225
4	2	Harald PROCZYK		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	8	1:38.507	0.456
5	23	Sandro SOUBEK		MAIR Racing Osttirol	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	9	1:38.529	0.478
6	29	Mitchell CHEAH Min Jie		Hyundai Team Engstler	Hyundai i30 N TCR	8	1:38.587	0.536
7	8	René KIRCHER		Volkswagen Team Oettinger	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	8	1:38.613	0.562
8	98	Jan SEYFFERT		HP Racing International	Hyundai i30 N TCR	10	1:39.125	1.074
9	92	Dziugas TOVILAVICIUS		SKUBA RACING TEAM	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	11	1:39.327	1.276
10	55	Marcel FUGEL		Profi Car Team Halder	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	8	1:39.380	1.329
11	17	Albert LEGUTKO		Albert Legutko Racing	Honda Civic Type-R FK2 TCR	10	1:39.388	1.337
12	24	Felix WIMMER		Team Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición	9	1:39.590	1.539
13	21	Szymon LADNIAK		GT2 Motorsports	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	8	1:39.683	1.632
14	56	Günter BENNINGER		Team Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición	13	1:40.417	2.366
15	99	Christian VOITHOFER		Team Wimmer Werk Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición	11	1:45.992	7.941