Yvan Muller and Frédéric Vervisch share WTCR pole positions at Pau-Arnos

Yvan Muller has taken pole position for the FIA World Touring Car Cup Race of France, his home event at Circuit Pau-Arnos. 

At this high-intensity track, qualifying was always set to be an impressive spectacle and it didn’t disappoint. 

In the first knockout round of qualifying, Yann Ehrlacher was the quickest driver amongst the first batch of lap times, but with 14 minutes of the session remaining Gilles Magnus went off into the gravel trap in sector two. With his Audi stranded, the red flags were waved and qualifying was temporarily halted.

As such, for the second time in as many events, the fast young Belgian will have to start both races from the back of the grid. 

Ehrlacher’s lead didn’t last for long once the session got back underway however, as Esteban Guerrieri went quicker, as did Jean-Karl Vernay, with the Frenchman going fastest thanks to a lap time of 01:19.027. Frederic Vervisch also improved ahead of Ehrlacher to move into the top three. 

Tiago Monteiro then sprung up out of nowhere to displace Vervisch for third. That was, until Nestor Girolami did the same thing to him. 

Next up came the Hyundais. Norbert Michelisz went fastest of all, while Gabriele Tarquini slotted into third between Vernay and Guerrieri. 

With just three minutes left on the clock, Cyan Racing – who had looked comfortable during practice – all of a sudden needed to improve their pace to progress safely through into Q2. 

Muller did just that and moved up to sixth, leaving Thed Bjork in the drop zone in fourteenth and Santiago Urrutia on the bubble in twelfth. 

The following lap however, Bjork moved up to seventh, and in doing so pushed Urrutia into the drop zone. Ehrlacher, meanwhile, didn’t have to worry about any of this as he went fastest of all. Thankfully for Cyan Racing, Urrutia also managed to progress out of Q1, leaving it late to go sixth-fastest.

There was strife elsewhere for CUPRA though. Rob Huff was the best of their qualifiers in fourteenth, while Autodrom Most polesitter – and third-placed driver in the standings – Mikel Azcona qualified nineteenth. 

Onto Q2, it was the home heroes who were once again performing well early on. Vernay went quickest in his Hyundai Elantra after the first round of flying laps, with compatriots Ehrlacher and Muller just behind in second and third place respectively. 

In the second round of laps, Michelisz rose to the top of the timesheets, but only briefly as Vernay almost immediately stole the top position away again, posting a lap time of 01:18.777.

That is how it would stay until the end of Q2, with Ehrlacher third and Muller fourth. Guerrieri had been running in fifth for Honda, but was pipped by Urrutia right at the death to seal the final spot in the five-car Q3 shoot-out for pole. 

Girolami in the other Honda finished the session in seventh ahead of Tarquini in eighth. Bjork wound up ninth but will start from the front row of the reversed grid in race one. Vervisch, meanwhile, qualified tenth, and with that the Belgian driver secured reverse-grid pole for Audi.

Monteiro will start both races from eleventh place, just ahead of Nathanael Berthon in twelfth who suffered from damper issues. 

At this stage, there was just one phase of qualifying left to go. Ehrlacher was the first driver to set his time in the shoot-out, and it showed. A ragged lap was made worse by running far too deep into the downhill chicane, and in the end the championship points leader would have to make do with a benchmark lap time of 01:20.333.

Ehrlacher’s team-mate Muller was next up, and the veteran was able to put together a much tidier lap, going 1.3 seconds faster than his nephew. Urrutia wasn’t able to better it either, slotting in between the pair of them in the overall order. 

So, it all came down to Hyundai. Vernay was the first of their two drivers to set their lap, and although he managed to set a purple time in sector one, the Frenchman lost pace to Muller in sectors two and three. Second place would have to suffice. 

And it would indeed remain second place. Michelisz, the final driver left to run, didn’t quite have the pace to match Muller or Vernay, and so the Hungarian tucked into third ahead of Urrutia and Ehrlacher. Pole position for Sunday’s main race would therefore go to Muller – his first since 2019. 

Race one gets underway tomorrow morning at 10:00 CEST (09:00 BST), with a couple of hours to repair any damage before the main race at midday local time (11:00 BST).

Q3 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	100		Yvan MULLER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	3	1:18.973	–
2	69		Jean-Karl VERNAY	Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	3	1:19.206	0.233
3	5		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	3	1:19.235	0.262
4	12		Santiago URRUTIA	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	3	1:20.093	1.120
5	68		Yann EHRLACHER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	3	1:20.333	1.360

Q2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	69		Jean-Karl VERNAY	Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	6	1:18.777	–
2	5		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	6	1:18.810	0.033
3	68		Yann EHRLACHER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	6	1:18.827	0.050
4	100		Yvan MULLER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	6	1:18.923	0.146
5	12		Santiago URRUTIA	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	5	1:18.935	0.158
6	86		Esteban GUERRIERI	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	6	1:19.053	0.276
7	29		Néstor GIROLAMI	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	6	1:19.104	0.327
8	3		Gabriele TARQUINI	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	6	1:19.108	0.331
9	11		Thed BJÖRK	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	5	1:19.127	0.350
10	22		Frédéric VERVISCH	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	6	1:19.185	0.408
11	18		Tiago MONTEIRO	ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	6	1:19.215	0.438
12	17		Nathanaël BERTHON	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	3	1:19.370	0.593

Q1 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	68		Yann EHRLACHER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	11	1:18.820	–
2	5		Norbert MICHELISZ	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	10	1:18.889	0.069
3	69		Jean-Karl VERNAY	Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	9	1:19.027	0.207
4	3		Gabriele TARQUINI	BRC Hyundai N LUKOIL Squadra Corse	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	1:19.067	0.247
5	86		Esteban GUERRIERI	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	9	1:19.086	0.266
6	12		Santiago URRUTIA	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	12	1:19.136	0.316
7	29		Néstor GIROLAMI	ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	11	1:19.141	0.321
8	100		Yvan MULLER	Cyan Racing Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	12	1:19.207	0.387
9	11		Thed BJÖRK	Cyan Performance Lynk & Co	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	13	1:19.230	0.410
10	22		Frédéric VERVISCH	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	10	1:19.237	0.417
11	18		Tiago MONTEIRO	ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	12	1:19.252	0.432
12	17		Nathanaël BERTHON	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	12	1:19.275	0.455
13	8		Luca ENGSTLER	Engstler Hyundai N Liqui Moly Racing Team	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	1:19.373	0.553
14	79		Rob HUFF	Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	1:19.466	0.646
15	32		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	11	1:19.637	0.817
16	28		Jordi GENÉ	Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	12	1:19.765	0.945
17	55		Bence BOLDIZS	Zengő Motorsport Drivers’ Academy	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	12	1:19.854	1.034
18	9		Attila TASSI	ALL-INKL.DE Münnich Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R FK8 TCR	12	1:19.867	1.047
19	96		Mikel AZCONA	Zengő Motorsport	CUPRA Leon Competición TCR	11	1:19.889	1.069
20	16		Gilles MAGNUS	Comtoyou Team Audi Sport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	3	No time	N/A