Mike Halder claimed a pole position on home soil at the Norisring, with the Honda driver beating Target Competition’s Felice Jelmini by just 0.031 seconds on the short street circuit.
Halder had been one of the top drivers in the first part of qualifying, lapping second quickest in Q1, with a time which was less than a tenth away from Q1 pace-setter Jelmini.
Both drivers went even quicker in the second part of qualifying, with Halder ultimately edging out Jelmini on a warm and sunny day in Nuremberg, seizing pole with a lap time of 54.753 seconds.
Jelmini, the top Hyundai driver, was a mere 0.031 seconds further back, whilst third-placed Viktor Davidovski was also within a tenth of a second of the pace in his Comtoyou Racing Audi.
Target’s Josh Files was fourth fastest in his Hyundai Elantra, ahead of the Janík Motorsport Elantra of Mat’o Homola in fifth.
Volcano Motorsport’s Isidro Callejas was the best of the CUPRA drivers in sixth, the Spaniard, who had been quick in the wet on Friday, ending up two and a half tenths off pole.
Sébastien Loeb Racing’s John Filippi was directly behind in the next-best CUPRA in seventh, whilst championship leader Franco Girolami put his Audi in eighth for the opening race.
The top ten was completed by Halder Motorsport’s Jack Young and Volcano Motorsport’s Klim Gavrilov, with the latter securing the reverse-grid pole position for Sunday’s second race.
Marco Butti was the only other driver who made it into Q2 to post a time, with the Élite Motorsport rookie being almost three seconds off the pace after completing just one flying lap.
The third Volcano CUPRA of Evgenii Leonov had made it into Q2 but after crashing into the wall near the end of Q1, his car couldn’t be repaired in time and he took no part in Q2, leaving the Russian to start from 12th for both races.
Rubén Fernández was the fastest driver to not go beyond Q1, the Spaniard qualifying in 13th and missing out by just 0.013 seconds.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 17:40 CEST (16:40 BST).
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 7 |  |
Mike HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 9 | 54.753 | – |
| 2 | 44 |  |
Felice JELMINI | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 54.784 | 0.031 |
| 3 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 8 | 54.822 | 0.069 |
| 4 | 99 |  |
Josh FILES | Target Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 54.899 | 0.146 |
| 5 | 70 |  |
Mat’o HOMOLA | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 54.931 | 0.178 |
| 6 | 26 |  |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 9 | 55.008 | 0.255 |
| 7 | 27 |  |
John FILIPPI | Sébastien Loeb Racing – Bardahl Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 55.046 | 0.293 |
| 8 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 8 | 55.074 | 0.321 |
| 9 | 62 | |
Jack YOUNG | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 9 | 55.075 | 0.322 |
| 10 | 14 |  |
Klim GAVRILOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 7 | 55.273 | 0.520 |
| 11 | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | Élite Motorsport by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 3 | 57.569 | 2.816 |
| 12 | 16 | |
Evgenii LEONOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 1 | No time | N/A |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 44 | |
Felice JELMINI | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 54.845 | – |
| 2 | 7 | |
Mike HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 15 | 54.921 | 0.076 |
| 3 | 26 | |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 12 | 54.958 | 0.113 |
| 4 | 110 | |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 16 | 54.970 | 0.125 |
| 5 | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | Élite Motorsport by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 14 | 55.011 | 0.166 |
| 6 | 99 | |
Josh FILES | Target Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 55.051 | 0.206 |
| 7 | 16 | |
Evgenii LEONOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 14 | 55.072 | 0.227 |
| 8 | 72 | |
Franco GIROLAMI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 16 | 55.083 | 0.238 |
| 9 | 27 | |
John FILIPPI | Sébastien Loeb Racing – Bardahl Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 19 | 55.182 | 0.337 |
| 10 | 14 | |
Klim GAVRILOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 17 | 55.222 | 0.377 |
| 11 | 70 | |
Mat’o HOMOLA | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 18 | 55.243 | 0.398 |
| 12 | 62 | |
Jack YOUNG | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 14 | 55.269 | 0.424 |
| 13 | 12 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | RC2 Junior Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 18 | 55.282 | 0.437 |
| 14 | 24 |  |
Jáchym GALÁŠ | Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 18 | 55.320 | 0.475 |
| 15 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 55.420 | 0.575 |
| 16 | 39 |  |
Stian PAULSEN | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR 2021 | 15 | 55.457 | 0.612 |
| 17 | 34 | |
Patrick SING | RaceSing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 19 | 55.462 | 0.617 |
| 18 | 74 | |
Pepe ORIOLA | Aggressive Team Italia Asd | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 16 | 55.520 | 0.675 |
| 19 | 53 | |
Michelle HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 15 | 55.633 | 0.788 |
| 20 | 37 |  |
Sergio LÓPEZ | RC2 Junior Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 18 | 56.026 | 1.181 |
| 21 | 3 | |
Giacomo GHERMANDI | Lema Racing | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 17 | 56.453 | 1.608 |