Tony D’Alberto secured his first pole position of the TCR Australia season at Bathurst, fending off TCR World Tour competitors and beating Cyan Racing’s Yann Ehrlacher by almost four tenths of a second.
The reigning champion had already shown his hand on Friday, when he was the fastest of the TCR Australia field and only a fraction away from Ehrlacher’s pace-setting time in practice.
In qualifying, it was Ehrlacher who put his Lynk & Co at the top of the times in Q1, the Frenchman posting a time of 2 minutes 14.288 seconds to go less than a tenth quicker than team-mate Santiago Urrutia.
And whilst Ehrlacher was D’Alberto’s closest rival in Q2, 0.390 seconds behind the Honda driver, he will not start from second in Saturday’s opening race thanks to a five-place grid penalty he received yesterday for an engine change.
Therefore, it will be Urrutia lining up alongside D’Alberto on the front row of the grid, as the Uruguayan was third quickest, just 0.025 seconds behind Ehrlacher in Q2.
Thed Björk put his Lynk & Co in fourth, ahead of the leading BRC Racing Hyundai of Mikel Azcona in fifth.
Néstor Girolami was the only other driver within a second of the pace, putting his Wall Racing Honda in sixth.
Comtoyou Racing’s Rob Huff, now firmly in the TCR World Tour title battle, was the leading Audi in seventh, crucially out-qualifying title rival Norbert Michelisz, who failed to get into Q2 and was just 11th.
In the TCR Australia title battle, Josh Buchan took the advantage by qualifying his Hyundai Elantra in eighth, 1.7 seconds off the pace, whereas main title rival Bailey Sweeny was only 16th after suffering from turbo issues.
The Audi’s of TCR Australia’s Zac Soutar and TCR World Tour’s Frédéric Vervisch completed the top ten.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 16:15 local time (06:15 CET, 05:15 GMT).
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 1 |  |
Tony D’ALBERTO | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 3 | 2:13.357 | – |
| 2 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 3 | 2:13.747 | 0.390 |
| 3 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 4 | 2:13.772 | 0.415 |
| 4 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 3 | 2:13.882 | 0.525 |
| 5 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 3 | 2:14.194 | 0.837 |
| 6 | 129 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 3 | 2:14.248 | 0.891 |
| 7 | 179 |  |
Rob HUFF | Audi Sport Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 4 | 2:14.577 | 1.220 |
| 8 | 30 | |
Josh BUCHAN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 2:15.101 | 1.744 |
| 9 | 110 | |
Zac SOUTAR | Team Soutar Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 3 | 2:15.480 | 2.123 |
| 10 | 122 |  |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Audi Sport Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 1 | No time | N/A |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 168 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 5 | 2:14.288 | – |
| 2 | 112 | |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 5 | 2:14.354 | 0.066 |
| 3 | 1 | |
Tony D’ALBERTO | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 2:14.473 | 0.185 |
| 4 | 111 | |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 5 | 2:14.751 | 0.463 |
| 5 | 179 | |
Rob HUFF | Audi Sport Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 2:14.846 | 0.558 |
| 6 | 122 | |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Audi Sport Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 2:14.934 | 0.646 |
| 7 | 196 | |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 2:14.982 | 0.694 |
| 8 | 110 | |
Zac SOUTAR | Team Soutar Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 2:15.076 | 0.788 |
| 9 | 129 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | Honda Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 2:15.163 | 0.875 |
| 10 | 30 | |
Josh BUCHAN | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 2:15.237 | 0.949 |
| 11 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 2:15.436 | 1.148 |
| 12 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 5 | 2:15.493 | 1.205 |
| 13 | 9 | |
Will BROWN | MPC Team LIQUI MOLY | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 2:15.611 | 1.323 |
| 14 | 18 | |
Aaron CAMERON | Team Valvoline GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 4 | 2:15.720 | 1.432 |
| 15 | 71 | |
Ben BARGWANNA | Burson Auto Parts Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 5 | 2:15.768 | 1.480 |
| 16 | 130 | |
Bailey SWEENY | HMO Customer Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | 2:15.919 | 1.631 |
| 17 | 33 | |
Jordan COX | Schaeffler GRM | Peugeot 308 TCR | 5 | 2:15.948 | 1.660 |
| 18 | 15 | |
Michael CLEMENTE | Carl Cox Motorsport | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 6 | 2:16.041 | 1.753 |
| 19 | 4 | |
Teddy CLAIRET | Hangcha Forklifts | Peugeot 308 TCR | 5 | 2:16.227 | 1.939 |
| 20 | 115 | |
Tom OLIPHANT | Autoglym / Ashley Seward Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 5 | 2:16.433 | 2.145 |
| 21 | 74 | |
Brad HARRIS | Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 5 | 2:16.600 | 2.312 |
| 22 | 14 | |
Lachlan MINEEFF | Purple Sector | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 2:17.004 | 2.716 |
| 23 | 22 | |
Iain MCDOUGALL | Challenge Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 6 | 2:18.115 | 3.827 |
| 24 | 76 | |
Will HARRIS | Exclusive Switchboards / Wall Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |