Team Clairet Sport’s Teddy Clairet took pole position for the opening race of the weekend at Circuit Paul Ricard in the TCR Europe championship.
Clairet, who was also fastest in the opening practice session of the weekend on Friday, set a time of 2 minutes 12.615 early on in the session, with his closet rival being that of reigning champion Mehdi Bennani.
Bennani, who was the first of a quartet of Sébastien Loeb Racing Hyundai’s, finished the second qualifying session 0.110 seconds behind Frenchman Clairet.
Third fastest at the French circuit was Felice Jelmini in one of the sister Hyundai Elantra N’s, with the Italian, who was the fastest man in Q1, managing a time of 2 minutes 12.878 in the second part of qualifying.
Q1 had also seen a dominant performance from all four of the Hyundai’s, with eventual pole sitter Clairet managing to be the only driver to split them after taking the third fastest time in the earlier session.
Fourth for race one went to Sami Taoufik, with the Moroccan driver just 0.023 seconds behind Jelmini, while Niels Langeveld was the fourth of the Hyundai’s in fifth position.
Sixth in Q2 went to British driver Jack Young in the Brutal Fish Racing Team Honda, with him finishing just 0.022 seconds behind Langeveld.
Seventh on the grid for race one will be the second Team Clairet Sport car of Jimmy Clairet, with championship leader Mikel Azcona only managing eighth on the grid.
Ninth and tenth went to PSS Racing Team pair Franco Girolami – who was also fastest in FP2 yesterady – and Viktor Davidovski, meaning the Macedonian driver will line up on pole for race two.
11th fastest was Isidro Callejas in the second of the Brutal Fish Racing Team Honda’s with Volcano Motorsport’s Evegenii Leonov finishing Q2 in 12th.
One driver to not make it to Q2 was pole sitter last time out at the Slovakiaring Tom Coronel.
The ComtoYou Racing Audi driver could only manage 13th quickest with a time of 2 minutes 13.892, less than a tenth of a second behind CUPRA driver Evgenii Leonov.
Behind the Dutchman was Team Clairet Sport Honda Civic driver Sylvain Pussier, another of the ComToYou Racing drivers Nicolas Baert and Mat’o Homola in the Janik Motorsport Hyundai.
17th fastest was Klim Gavrilov in the VRC-Team Audi, with Jáchym Galás, Martin Ryba eighteenth and ninth quickest.
Down in 20th was Dušan Borković in another of the ComToYou Racing Audi’s, with the final spot on the grid for race one going to Giles Colombani.
Race one at Paul Ricard is set to get underway later today at 16:45 CEST (15:45 BST).
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 20 |  |
Teddy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 5 | 2:12.615 | – |
| 2 | 250 |  |
Mehdi BENNANI | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 2:12.725 | 0.110 |
| 3 | 44 |  |
Felice JELMINI | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 2:12.878 | 0.263 |
| 4 | 25 | |
Sami TAOUFIK | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 2:12.959 | 0.344 |
| 5 | 10 |  |
Niels LANGEVELD | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 2:13.139 | 0.524 |
| 6 | 62 |  |
Jack YOUNG | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 4 | 2:13.161 | 0.546 |
| 7 | 21 | |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 5 | 2:13.174 | 0.559 |
| 8 | 96 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 4 | 2:13.312 | 0.697 |
| 9 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 5 | 2:13.333 | 0.718 |
| 10 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKY | PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 5 | 2:13.606 | 0.991 |
| 11 | 26 | |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 4 | 2:14.242 | 1.627 |
| 12 | 16 |  |
Evgenii LEONOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 5 | 2:14.364 | 1.749 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 44 | |
Felice JELMINI | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:12.882 | – |
| 2 | 250 | |
Mehdi BENNANI | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 7 | 2:12.897 | 0.015 |
| 3 | 20 | |
Teddy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 5 | 2:12.999 | 0.117 |
| 4 | 25 | |
Sami TAOUFIK | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:13.045 | 0.163 |
| 5 | 10 | |
Niels LANGEVELD | Sébastien Loeb Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:13.271 | 0.389 |
| 6 | 72 | |
Franco GIROLAMI | PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 6 | 2:13.279 | 0.397 |
| 7 | 96 | |
Mikel AZCONA | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 2:13.288 | 0.406 |
| 8 | 21 | |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 5 | 2:13.357 | 0.475 |
| 9 | 110 | |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKY | PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 7 | 2:13.484 | 0.602 |
| 10 | 62 | |
Jack YOUNG | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 7 | 2:13.608 | 0.726 |
| 11 | 26 | |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 7 | 2:13.732 | 0.850 |
| 12 | 16 | |
Evgenii LEONOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 2:13.797 | 0.915 |
| 13 | 32 | |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 2:13.892 | 1.010 |
| 14 | 77 | |
Sylvain PUSSIER | Team Clairet Sport | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 2:14.113 | 1.231 |
| 15 | 8 |  |
Nicolas BAERT | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 2:14.278 | 1.396 |
| 16 | 70 |  |
Mat’o HOMOLA | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 2:14.343 | 1.461 |
| 17 | 14 | |
Klim GAVRILOV | VRC-Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 2:14.391 | 1.509 |
| 18 | 24 | |
Jáchym GALÁŠ | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 2:14.761 | 1.879 |
| 19 | 17 | |
Martin RYBA | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR | 7 | 2:14.819 | 1.937 |
| 20 | 162 |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 2:14.825 | 1.943 |
| 21 | 66 | |
Gilles COLOMBANI | Team Clairet Sport | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 2:15.446 | 2.564 |