Sébastien Loeb Racing’s John Filippi scored his first pole position of the season in qualifying for the TCR Europe series at Monza, with a huge 0.9 seconds margin over Target Competition’s Nicola Baldan in a wet session.
Filippi, 27, had last had a pole in the series in 2020, when he put his car at the front for the first round of the year.
Although he has been a regular top ten challenger so far in 2022, Filippi has not featured at the very front, and his margin of just under a second is the biggest-ever pole margin in the series’ history, thanks to tricky conditions – lap times were over seven seconds slower than in the dry – and the Corsican racer timing his lap well.
Baldan was second quickest in his Hyundai Elantra N, just ahead of Janík Motorsport’s Jáchym Galáš in third, with the result marking the Czech youngster’s best-ever qualifying result in the series.
Likewise, Halder Motorsport’s Michelle Halder put in a career-best effort to qualify her Honda in fourth. The German has once qualified a place higher, but that was in the TCR Spain series which at the time only featured six TCR entries.
Rookie Marco Butti was fifth quickest as the leading Audi racer, the Elite Motorsport Audi driver being 1.3 seconds off the pace.
Michele Imberti put in a competitive showing on his début in the series, qualifying his Hyundai i30 in sixth, ahead of championship leader Franco Girolami in seventh.
Felipe Fernández was the leading RC2 driver in eighth, ahead of team-mate Sergio López in ninth.
Volcano Motorsport’s Klim Gavrilov completed the top ten as the only one of the Spanish team’s drivers to make it through to Q2, giving the Russian the reverse-grid pole position for Sunday’s second race.
Rubén Fernández put his Audi in 11th, ahead of championship challenger Josh Files’ Hyundai in 12th.
Aggressive Team Italia’s Pepe Oriola was the leading driver to miss out on getting through to Q2, the Spaniard qualifying his Hyundai in 13th, just 0.067 seconds slower than Imberti in Q1.
Volcano’s Isidro Callejas will join his compatriot on the seventh row of the grid after putting his CUPRA in 14th.
Despite setting the pace in Friday’s practice sessions, Halder Motorsport’s Jack Young didn’t even make it through to Q2, his Honda being just 17th fastest, almost two seconds off the pace, in the wet first session, with the Northern Irishman ending the session stranded at the first corner with broken steering.
To make matters worse for Young, he has also been handed a three-place grid penalty for the opening race after an incident involving Evgenii Leonov in Q1 – Young had already been given a suspended penalty after Spa-Francorchamps, which has now been applied. He has also been given a further suspended three-place grid penalty for the rest of the season.
Like Young, Comtoyou Racing’s Tom Coronel, who is also still in title contention, also struggled in the conditions and could only manage 18th having been second to Young in both of Friday’s practice outings.
Series leader Girolami could wrap up the drivers’ title if he outscores Files by 17 points and Coronel by three points this weekend.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 13:40 CEST (12:40 BST).
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 27 |  |
John FILIPPI | Sébastien Loeb Racing – Bardahl Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 6 | 2:03.731 | – |
| 2 | 8 |  |
Nicola BALDAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 2:04.721 | 0.990 |
| 3 | 24 |  |
Jáchym GALÁŠ | Hyundai Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 2:04.781 | 1.050 |
| 4 | 53 |  |
Michelle HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 5 | 2:05.034 | 1.303 |
| 5 | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | Élite Motorsport by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 6 | 2:05.074 | 1.343 |
| 6 | 144 | |
Michele IMBERTI | Michele Imberti | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 2:05.295 | 1.564 |
| 7 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 2:05.542 | 1.811 |
| 8 | 19 |  |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 2:05.608 | 1.877 |
| 9 | 37 |  |
Sergio LÓPEZ | Auto Club RC2 Valles | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 6 | 2:05.903 | 2.172 |
| 10 | 14 |  |
Klim GAVRILOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 6 | 2:06.070 | 2.339 |
| 11 | 12 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 2:06.482 | 2.751 |
| 12 | 99 |  |
Josh FILES | Target Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 6 | 2:07.372 | 3.641 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 14 | |
Klim GAVRILOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 7 | 1:59.834 | – |
| 2 | 24 | |
Jáchym GALÁŠ | Hyundai Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:00.521 | 0.687 |
| 3 | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | Élite Motorsport by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 8 | 2:00.542 | 0.708 |
| 4 | 27 | |
John FILIPPI | Sébastien Loeb Racing – Bardahl Team | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 2:00.695 | 0.861 |
| 5 | 72 | |
Franco GIROLAMI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 8 | 2:00.754 | 0.920 |
| 6 | 99 | |
Josh FILES | Target Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:00.956 | 1.122 |
| 7 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 2:01.011 | 1.177 |
| 8 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:01.040 | 1.206 |
| 9 | 12 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 2:01.149 | 1.315 |
| 10 | 53 | |
Michelle HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 2:01.212 | 1.378 |
| 11 | 37 | |
Sergio LÓPEZ | Auto Club RC2 Valles | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 2:01.299 | 1.465 |
| 12 | 144 | |
Michele IMBERTI | Michele Imberti | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 2:01.320 | 1.486 |
| 13 | 74 | |
Pepe ORIOLA | Aggressive Team Italia Asd | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 7 | 2:01.387 | 1.553 |
| 14 | 26 | |
Isidro CALLEJAS | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 2:01.574 | 1.740 |
| 15 | 7 | |
Mike HALDER | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 2:01.611 | 1.777 |
| 16 | 44 | |
Felice JELMINI | Target Competition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:01.825 | 1.991 |
| 17 | 62 | |
Jack YOUNG | Halder Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 2:01.860 | 2.026 |
| 18 | 33 |  |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 2:01.957 | 2.123 |
| 19 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 8 | 2:02.451 | 2.617 |
| 20 | 3 | |
Giacomo GHERMANDI | Lema Racing | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 2:02.594 | 2.760 |
| 21 | 73 | |
Václav JANÍK | Hyundai Janík Motorsport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:03.960 | 4.126 |
| 22 | 64 |  |
Levente LOSONCZY | Aggressive Team Italia Asd | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 2:04.887 | 5.053 |
| 23 | 16 | |
Evgenii LEONOV | Volcano Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 2:04.898 | 5.064 |
| 24 | 9 | |
Matteo POLONI | Matteo Poloni | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 7 | 2:05.119 | 5.285 |
| 25 | 11 | |
Paolo ROCCA | Paolo Rocca | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 6 | 2:14.091 | 14.257 |