Mikel Azcona scored his first pole position since joining Hyundai in qualifying for the FIA World Touring Car Cup at the Hungaroring, with Audi’s Nathanaël Berthon to start alongside him on the front row of the grid for race one.
BRC Racing’s Azcona was just over a tenth of a second faster than Berthon in the all-important Q3 shootout, his lap of 1 minute 52.020 seconds being not the fastest of the day but good enough for just the second pole of his WTCR career.
“That was very tough, I have to say,” said Azcona. “Everything is very close, and we are all together, but I’m very happy with this first pole position of the year.
“I’m very happy for the team because we are working so hard every single day. The car was working amazingly, and we need to use this opportunity tomorrow to take the victory.”
The challenge to Azcona in Q3 was relatively mild – both Münnich Motorsport’s Esteban Guerrieri and Comtoyou Racing’s Gilles Magnus made mistakes on their laps – the former having his time of 1:52.086, which would have been good enough for second, disallowed for exceeding track limits.
That left Berthon to put in a time of 1:52.148 which was good enough for second, with Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher in third, three tenths back from pole.
Guerrieri will start fourth for race one, whilst Magnus will go from fifth after not posting a time.
Ma Qing Hua was the quickest driver to miss out on progressing beyond Q2, the Chinese driver just 0.054 seconds away from getting into Q3, leaving the Cyan Racing driver to start alongside Magnus in sixth.
Home hero Norbert Michelisz qualified his Hyundai in seventh, but will have a five-place grid penalty for the first race, with the second-quickest Honda of points leader Néstor Girolami in eighth.
The top ten was completed by a strong effort from Zengő Motorsport’s Rob Huff and Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia.
Urrutia, who had been fastest in second practice, thus secured the reverse-grid pole position for race two, with Huff’s CUPRA starting alongside.
Yvan Muller just missed out on progression and was 11th, whilst the second Zengő CUPRA of Dániel Nagy was 12th, the Hungarian having caused a red flag in the session after just three minutes when he went straight on at the first corner and hit the barriers.
Despite setting the pace in first practice, Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk was the top driver to miss out on getting beyond Q1, leaving his Lynk & Co in 13th for both races, the Swede missing out on continuing in the session by just 0.010 seconds.
16 of the field’s 17 cars were covered by less than a second, with Team Engstler’s Tiago Monteiro being the slowest of all.
Both races are scheduled for Sunday at 11:20 and 16:45 CEST respectively (10:20 and 15:45 BST).
Q3 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 96 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 3 | 1:52.020 | – |
| 2 | 17 |  |
Nathanaël BERTHON | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 3 | 1:52.148 | 0.128 |
| 3 | 68 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 1:52.344 | 0.324 |
| 4 | 86 |  |
Esteban GUERRIERI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 3 | No time | N/A |
| 5 | 16 |  |
Gilles MAGNUS | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 3 | No time | N/A |
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 16 | |
Gilles MAGNUS | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 5 | 1:51.684 | – |
| 2 | 68 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 4 | 1:51.687 | 0.003 |
| 3 | 17 | |
Nathanaël BERTHON | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 6 | 1:51.707 | 0.023 |
| 4 | 96 | |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:51.768 | 0.084 |
| 5 | 86 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 5 | 1:51.804 | 0.120 |
| 6 | 55 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 4 | 1:51.858 | 0.174 |
| 7 | 5 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:51.986 | 0.302 |
| 8 | 29 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 5 | 1:52.108 | 0.424 |
| 9 | 79 |  |
Rob HUFF | Zengő Motorsport Services Kft | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 6 | 1:52.159 | 0.475 |
| 10 | 12 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 5 | 1:52.259 | 0.575 |
| 11 | 100 | |
Yvan MULLER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 4 | 1:52.339 | 0.655 |
| 12 | 99 | |
Dániel NAGY | Zengő Motorsport Services Kft | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 1 | No time | N/A |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 29 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 1:51.862 | – |
| 2 | 5 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:51.900 | 0.038 |
| 3 | 17 | |
Nathanaël BERTHON | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 8 | 1:51.916 | 0.054 |
| 4 | 12 | |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 8 | 1:52.058 | 0.196 |
| 5 | 96 | |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:52.061 | 0.199 |
| 6 | 86 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 8 | 1:52.088 | 0.226 |
| 7 | 79 | |
Rob HUFF | Zengő Motorsport Services Kft | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 7 | 1:52.099 | 0.237 |
| 8 | 55 | |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 8 | 1:52.117 | 0.255 |
| 9 | 68 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 8 | 1:52.145 | 0.283 |
| 10 | 16 | |
Gilles MAGNUS | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 7 | 1:52.215 | 0.353 |
| 11 | 100 | |
Yvan MULLER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 8 | 1:52.224 | 0.362 |
| 12 | 99 | |
Dániel NAGY | Zengő Motorsport Services Kft | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 9 | 1:52.317 | 0.455 |
| 13 | 11 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Performance Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 9 | 1:52.327 | 0.465 |
| 14 | 9 | |
Attila TASSI | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 8 | 1:52.516 | 0.654 |
| 15 | 25 |  |
Mehdi BENNANI | Comtoyou Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 9 | 1:52.656 | 0.794 |
| 16 | 33 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou DHL Team Audi Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 8 | 1:52.855 | 0.993 |
| 17 | 18 |  |
Tiago MONTEIRO | Liqui Moly Team Engstler | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 8 | 1:52.951 | 1.089 |