Viktor Andersson claims maiden TCR Europe pole in Pau

TCR Europe rookie Viktor Andersson claimed an impressive maiden pole position in qualifying on the streets of Pau, with the MA:GP Lynk & Co driver defeating Q1 pace-setter Dušan Borković by just under four tenths of a second.

On Friday, Andersson had battled with Tom Coronel for the top time in a wet-to-dry second practice, and the young Swede continued his strong form on Saturday in qualifying.

Although Andersson had been just sixth fastest in Q1, over six tenths slower than pace-setter Borković, he came to the fore in Q2 with a lap which was eight tenths of a second quicker than anyone had gone at any point so far in the weekend.

Lap times were around two seconds slower than when WTCR visited last year, and Andersson duly delivered a time of 1 minute 21.782 seconds in Q2 to claim a first pole in only his second meeting in a touring car.

That left Serbian Borković to qualify in second, with the Target Competition driver as the sole Hyundai representative in the field.

Borković had earlier topped Q1, which due to the reduced field was effectively another practice session, with all drivers who started being able to progress, due to late drop outs reducing the field to 12 cars.

Comtoyou Racing’s Kobe Pauwels, who had topped the times in a wet first session, was third quickest as the leading Audi driver, six tenths off Andersson’s time.

Volcano Motorsport British duo Isaac Smith and Lewis Brown were fourth and fifth fastest in their Audis, ahead of local entrant Eric Cayrolle’s Comtoyou-prepared Audi in sixth.

Viktor Davidovski was seventh in front of Comtoyou team-mate John Filippi in eighth, the only other drivers within two seconds of the pace.

Completing the top ten, and thus securing the front row for the reverse-grid second race, were CDRS’ Julien Nougaret and Comtoyou’s Tom Coronel, the latter having gone tactically slow in order to secure the tenth place and pole for Sunday’s race two.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 18:10 CEST (17:10 BST).

Q2 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	10		Viktor ANDERSSON	MA:GP	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	7	1:21.782	–
2	62		Dušan BORKOVIĆ	Target Competition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	7	1:22.157	0.375
3	22		Kobe PAUWELS	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	7	1:22.396	0.614
4	23		Isaac SMITH	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	7	1:22.547	0.765
5	39		Lewis BROWN	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	6	1:22.743	0.961
6	64		Eric CAYROLLE	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	6	1:22.827	1.045
7	11		Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	7	1:22.977	1.195
8	27		John FILIPPI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	6	1:23.109	1.327
9	40		Julien NOUGARET	Cap Racing by CDRS	CUPRA TCR	6	1:25.969	4.187
10	34		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	5	1:26.611	4.829
11	17		Christian PHILIPPON	Espace Racing with CDRS	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	6	1:28.971	7.189
12	41		Duthil DORIAN	Cap Racing by CDRS	CUPRA TCR	0	No time	N/A

Q1 results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	62		Dušan BORKOVIĆ	Target Competition	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	11	1:22.523	–
2	22		Kobe PAUWELS	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	1:22.691	0.168
3	23		Isaac SMITH	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	1:22.853	0.330
4	11		Viktor DAVIDOVSKI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	1:23.089	0.566
5	10		Viktor ANDERSSON	MA:GP	Lynk & Co 03 TCR	11	1:23.161	0.638
6	39		Lewis BROWN	Volcano Motorsport	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	10	1:23.383	0.860
7	64		Eric CAYROLLE	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	11	1:23.436	0.913
8	27		John FILIPPI	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	12	1:23.787	1.264
9	40		Julien NOUGARET	Cap Racing by CDRS	CUPRA TCR	6	1:26.485	3.962
10	34		Tom CORONEL	Comtoyou Racing	Audi RS3 LMS TCR II	7	1:26.653	4.130
11	41		Duthil DORIAN	Cap Racing by CDRS	CUPRA TCR	6	1:27.655	5.132
12	17		Christian PHILIPPON	Espace Racing with CDRS	Audi RS3 LMS TCR	12	1:32.979	10.456
13	8		Nicola BALDAN	Aggressive Team Italia	Hyundai Elantra N TCR	–	No time	N/A
14	49		Michel LEAL	Team Leal Compétition	Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR	–	No time	N/A