Comtoyou Racing’s Gilles Magnus secured pole position for the opening FIA World Touring Car Cup race at MotorLand Aragón, as Audi cars locked out the front row of the grid with Nathanaël Berthon in second.
The performance of the Audi cars in qualifying comes despite a mid-week clarification from WSC Group regarding the suspension springs of the cars, which required changes ahead of the event.
Magnus was untouchable on his single-lap Q3 run, posting a time of 2 minutes 5.485 seconds to beat his team-mate by two tenths of a second.
“After the Hungaroring, where we were in the same position and I had the speed to go for pole, I messed it up myself,” said Magnus.
“It’s a mental game this Q3 and you need to stay focused, and you cannot make a mistake. And this time I did it. So, my pressure is off my shoulders. Tomorrow, let’s win the race.”
Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher was the leading Lynk & Co driver in third, three tenths from pole, ahead of Zengő Motorsport’s Rob Huff in fourth, the CUPRA driver making it through to Q3 for the first time this year.
Yvan Muller was fifth quickest, seven tenths off the pace after clipping a tyre stack and two tenths slower than his own best time, which he had done in Q2 when he was the fastest of the Lynk & Co quintet.
The fastest of the drivers not to make it through to Q3 – missing out by just 0.014 seconds – was Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia. The Uruguayan had left it until later on in Q2 to go for his single lap time, the length of the circuit making two flying laps with tyre swap overs impossible, but despite a fastest-of-all first sector he could only end up in sixth, two tenths off the Q2 pace.
Zengő’s Dániel Nagy had a best qualifying performance f the year in seventh, ahead of the leading BRC Racing Hyundai of Mikel Azcona in eighth.
Azcona and team-mate Norbert Michelisz had looked like challenging for pole after practice – never being out of the top six – but their pace was not as strong in qualifying and they ended up in eighth and ninth respectively.
Ma Qing Hua put his Cyan Racing Lynk & Co in tenth, giving the Chinese driver the reverse-grid pole position for race two, where he will have Michelisz alongside on the grid.
Münnich Motorsport’s Esteban Guerrieri was 11th, the best of the Honda drivers in a weekend which is proving especially difficult for the Japanese manufacturer’s drivers due to challenges posed by having the maximum compensation weight.
Thed Björk, like team-mate Urrutia, left it until late in Q2 to go for a time, which didn’t pay off and the Cyan driver was 12th, over a second off the pace.
Néstor Girolami was the top driver to not progress beyond Q1, the Münnich driver in 13th after having made a mistake just after he had posted the quickest first sector of all drivers.
Attila Tassi was the best Liqui Moly Team Engstler driver in 14th, ahead of Comtoyou Racing’s Mehdi Bennnai in 15th – the Moroccan having never previously raced on the Spanish circuit.
Comtoyou’s Tom Coronel and Team Engstler’s Tiago Monteiro completed the ranking, the latter being a huge 2.5 seconds off the pace.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:15 CEST (10:15 BST) on Sunday.
Q3 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 16 |  |
Gilles MAGNUS | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 3 | 2:05.485 | – |
| 2 | 17 |  |
Nathanaël BERTHON | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 3 | 2:05.680 | 0.195 |
| 3 | 68 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 2:05.808 | 0.323 |
| 4 | 79 |  |
Rob HUFF | Zengő Motorsport Services Kft | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 3 | 2:05.945 | 0.460 |
| 5 | 100 | |
Yvan MULLER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 2:06.175 | 0.690 |
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 79 | |
Rob HUFF | Zengő Motorsport Services Kft | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 3 | 2:05.783 | – |
| 2 | 16 | |
Gilles MAGNUS | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 3 | 2:05.893 | 0.110 |
| 3 | 100 | |
Yvan MULLER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 2:05.903 | 0.120 |
| 4 | 68 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 2:05.933 | 0.150 |
| 5 | 17 | |
Nathanaël BERTHON | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 5 | 2:05.986 | 0.203 |
| 6 | 12 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 4 | 2:06.000 | 0.217 |
| 7 | 99 |  |
Dániel NAGY | Zengő Motorsport Services Kft | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 3 | 2:06.184 | 0.401 |
| 8 | 96 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 2:06.227 | 0.444 |
| 9 | 5 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 2:06.238 | 0.455 |
| 10 | 55 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 2:06.532 | 0.749 |
| 11 | 86 |  |
Esteban GUERRIERI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 3 | 2:06.646 | 0.863 |
| 12 | 11 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 2 | 2:07.438 | 1.655 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 16 | |
Gilles MAGNUS | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 6 | 2:05.099 | – |
| 2 | 12 | |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 7 | 2:06.057 | 0.148 |
| 3 | 17 | |
Nathanaël BERTHON | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 5 | 2:06.196 | 0.287 |
| 4 | 100 | |
Yvan MULLER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 7 | 2:06.199 | 0.290 |
| 5 | 68 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 7 | 2:06.231 | 0.322 |
| 6 | 79 | |
Rob HUFF | Zengő Motorsport Services Kft | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 7 | 2:06.292 | 0.383 |
| 7 | 5 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:06.292 | 0.383 |
| 8 | 96 | |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:06.302 | 0.393 |
| 9 | 99 | |
Dániel NAGY | Zengő Motorsport Services Kft | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 7 | 2:06.452 | 0.543 |
| 10 | 55 | |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 8 | 2:06.471 | 0.562 |
| 11 | 11 | |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 7 | 2:06.531 | 0.622 |
| 12 | 86 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 2:06.566 | 0.657 |
| 13 | 29 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 2:06.616 | 0.707 |
| 14 | 9 | |
Attila TASSI | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 2:06.634 | 0.725 |
| 15 | 25 |  |
Mehdi BENNANI | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 7 | 2:06.685 | 0.776 |
| 16 | 33 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 6 | 2:06.789 | 0.880 |
| 17 | 18 |  |
Tiago MONTEIRO | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 8 | 2:08.441 | 2.532 |