Ruben Volt scored his and ALM Motorsport’s first pole position in TCR Europe in qualifying at Monza on Saturday, with the Estonian half a second quicker than the Audi of Kobe Pauwels.
As with Friday’s running, rain affected the early part of qualifying, which had begun on a dry circuit. A long delay came after just eight minutes when Aggressive Team Italia’s Levente Losonczy lost control of his Hyundai at the Variante Ascari and crashed out, bringing out the red flags.
With Losonczy’s session over and his times removed for causing the stoppage, he faces starting from 14th and last for the opening race on Sunday if his car can be repaired in time.
After half an hour the session got underway, following barrier repairs, by which time the weather had changed, with rain now falling.
With 12 of the remaining 13 drivers set to proceed to Q2 anyway, the session effectively became another practice session for the front-running entrants.
The track dried quickly, resulting in Volt and Viktor Davidovski, who initially elected to stay in the pits, ultimately joining in to ensure their progression.
In the end, PMA Motorsport’s Felice Jelmini posted the best Q1 time, a lap of 1 minute 57.464 seconds, but in Q2 his session barely got going as he pitted with a fuel pump issue before posting a competitive time.
Volt claimed a maiden TCR Europe pole, and first for the new Honda Civic FL5, by a margin of over half a second, despite the Audis having a pace advantage of eight tenths over all other cars on Friday.
“It feels good to be on pole,” said the Estonian. “I didn’t even know I got it, as my radio was all static.
“I hope I can convert that pole into a win. It will depend on the start, as I think after that I can pull a gap.”
Championship contender Pauwels will line up alongside Volt on the front row of the grid, as Comtoyou Racing drivers secured the next five places.
Nicola Baldan was third quickest, a mere 0.012 seconds further back, ahead of Davidovski in fourth.
John Filippi was fifth, with team newcomer Lewis Brown in sixth, just over a second off the pace.
Viktor Andesson put his MA:GP Lynk & co in seventh, ahead of Friday pace-setter and points leader Tom Coronel in eighth, the Dutchman a notable 1.7 seconds off the pace.
The top ten was completed by the Hyundai and Audi of Giovanni Scamardi and Giacomo Ghermandi respectively, giving the latter the reverse-grid pole for Sunday’s second race.
Due to the delays in the schedule caused by the long stoppage, the opening race has been postponed from Saturday evening to 08:30 CEST (07:30 BST) on Sunday morning.
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 127 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:56.758 | – |
| 2 | 22 |  |
Kobe PAUWELS | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 1:57.263 | 0.505 |
| 3 | 8 |  |
Nicola BALDAN | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 1:57.275 | 0.517 |
| 4 | 11 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 6 | 1:57.289 | 0.531 |
| 5 | 27 |  |
John FILIPPI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 1:57.299 | 0.541 |
| 6 | 39 |  |
Lewis BROWN | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 1:57.889 | 1.131 |
| 7 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 5 | 1:58.341 | 1.583 |
| 8 | 34 | |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 1:58.470 | 1.712 |
| 9 | 84 |  |
Giovanni SCAMARDI | Aggressive Team Italia | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 6 | 1:58.862 | 2.104 |
| 10 | 3 | |
Giacomo GHERMANDI | LEMA Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 6 | 1:59.596 | 2.838 |
| 11 | 7 |  |
Daniel TKACHENKO | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 6 | 2:00.281 | 3.523 |
| 12 | 44 | |
Felice JELMINI | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 2 | No time | N/A |
Q1 Results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 44 | |
Felice JELMINI | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 1:57.464 | – |
| 2 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 1:57.772 | 0.308 |
| 3 | 22 | |
Kobe PAUWELS | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 11 | 1:57.984 | 0.520 |
| 4 | 11 | |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 8 | 1:58.107 | 0.643 |
| 5 | 39 | |
Lewis BROWN | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 1:58.201 | 0.737 |
| 6 | 127 | |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 7 | 1:58.315 | 0.851 |
| 7 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 9 | 1:58.499 | 1.035 |
| 8 | 34 | |
Tom CORONEL | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 1:58.550 | 1.086 |
| 9 | 27 | |
John FILIPPI | Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 11 | 1:58.629 | 1.165 |
| 10 | 84 | |
Giovanni SCAMARDI | Aggressive Team Italia | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:59.220 | 1.756 |
| 11 | 3 | |
Giacomo GHERMANDI | LEMA Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 1:59.283 | 1.819 |
| 12 | 7 | |
Daniel TKACHENKO | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 2:00.390 | 2.926 |
| 13 | 29 | |
Ivan PEKLIN | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 2:01.407 | 3.943 |
| 14 | 264 |  |
Levente LOSONCZY | Aggressive Team Italia | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 3 | No time | N/A |