Comtoyou Racing’s Tom Coronel claimed pole position in qualifying for TCR Europe at Circuit Paul Ricard, lapping the French circuit over two tenths of a second faster than Target Competition’s Felice Jelmini.
Coronel had earlier been seventh quickest in the first part of qualifying, but in Q2 the Audi driver upped his pace, lapping the South of France circuit in 2 minutes 11.828 seconds, which was just a tenth slower than the TCR qualifying lap record.
Coronel hit the top of the times halfway through the short 12-minute Q2, and no one could improve thereafter. Italian Jelmini was the best of the Hyundai contingent in second.
Jelmini’s team-mate Josh Files was second, but the Brit was over four tenths of a second off pole and will share the second row of the grid with Sébastien Loeb Racing’s John Filippi for race one.
Championship leader Franco Girolami put his Audi in fifth for the opening race – an effort which will see the Argentine start in the middle of the top ten for both races.
Jack Young was once again the fastest of the Halder Motorsport Honda drivers, the Northern Irishman once again the only driver of the trio to break into the top ten. He qualified in sixth, eight tenths off pole.
Seventh-placed Isidro Callejas was the last driver within a second of the pace in his Volcano Motorsport CUPRA, ahead of team-mate Klim Gavrilov, who had topped second practice, in eighth.
The top ten was completed by Brutal Fish Racing’s Pepe Oriola and Comtoyou Racing’s Viktor Davidovski – giving the latter the reverse-grid pole position for Sunday’s second race.
Davidovski had started from pole in last year’s reverse-grid race at the circuit, where he claimed his best-ever result of fourth in the series.
The third Volcano CUPRA of Evgenii Leonov just missed out on the race two pole and will start both races from 11th, with Janík Motorsport’s Mat’o Homola alongside on the sixth row of the grid.
Nicola Baldan was the top driver to fail to progress beyond Q1, the Italian in 13th and just under a second away from the fastest time of the first session, which was set by Files.
Mike Halder was down in 15th, over a second off the pace, whilst his sister Michelle was only 18th.
Series returnees Stéphane Ventaja and Gilles Colombani – this year taking part predominantly in TCR Italy – put their Team Clairet Sport cars in 17th and 20th respectively.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 13:40 CEST (12:40 BST) and will be streamed live online via YouTube.
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 33 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 3 | 2:11.828 | – |
| 2 | 44 |  |
Felice JELMINI | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 2:12.080 | 0.252 |
| 3 | 99 |  |
Josh FILES | Target Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 3 | 2:12.232 | 0.404 |
| 4 | 27 |  |
John FILIPPI | Sébastien Loeb Racing | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 4 | 2:12.362 | 0.534 |
| 5 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 4 | 2:12.492 | 0.664 |
| 6 | 62 | |
Jack YOUNG | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 4 | 2:12.641 | 0.813 |
| 7 | 26 |  |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 5 | 2:12.748 | 0.920 |
| 8 | 14 |  |
Klim GAVRILOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 4 | 2:12.981 | 1.153 |
| 9 | 74 | |
Pepe ORIOLA | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 4 | 2:13.115 | 1.287 |
| 10 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 4 | 2:13.213 | 1.385 |
| 11 | 16 | |
Evgenii LEONOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 5 | 2:13.551 | 1.723 |
| 12 | 70 |  |
Mat’o HOMOLA | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 2:16.203 | 4.375 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 99 | |
Josh FILES | Target Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:12.368 | – |
| 2 | 44 | |
Felice JELMINI | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 7 | 2:12.513 | 0.145 |
| 3 | 14 | |
Klim GAVRILOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 2:12.625 | 0.257 |
| 4 | 62 | |
Jack YOUNG | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 8 | 2:12.725 | 0.357 |
| 5 | 110 | |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 6 | 2:12.893 | 0.525 |
| 6 | 72 | |
Franco GIROLAMI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 7 | 2:12.900 | 0.532 |
| 7 | 33 | |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 7 | 2:13.095 | 0.727 |
| 8 | 27 | |
John FILIPPI | Sébastien Loeb Racing | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 2:13.097 | 0.729 |
| 9 | 74 | |
Pepe ORIOLA | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 2:13.174 | 0.806 |
| 10 | 70 | |
Mat’o HOMOLA | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 7 | 2:13.213 | 0.845 |
| 11 | 26 | |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 9 | 2:13.246 | 0.878 |
| 12 | 16 | |
Evgenii LEONOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 9 | 2:13.295 | 0.927 |
| 13 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:13.302 | 0.934 |
| 14 | 24 |  |
Jáchym GALÁŠ | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:13.350 | 0.982 |
| 15 | 7 |  |
Mike HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 2:13.642 | 1.274 |
| 16 | 3 | |
Giacomo GHERMANDI | Lema Racing | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 2:13.738 | 1.370 |
| 17 | 81 | |
Stéphane VENTAJA | Team Clairet Sport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 2:14.343 | 1.975 |
| 18 | 53 | |
Michelle HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 8 | 2:14.819 | 2.451 |
| 19 | 17 | |
Martin RYBA | Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 2:15.255 | 2.887 |
| 20 | 66 | |
Gilles COLOMBANI | Team Clairet Sport | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 2:15.270 | 2.902 |