Comtoyou Racing’s Nicola Baldan has secured his first pole position in the TCR Europe series at Zolder, the Audi driver beating SP Compétition CUPRA racer Aurélien Comte by over four tenths of a second.
Baldan had earlier topped the first part of qualifying in the dry with a lap of 1 minute 37.128 seconds, and then went quicker still on his final run in Q2, posting a time of 1:36.470.
Frenchman Comte was the Italian’s closest challenger on both occasions, but the CUPRA racer ultimately had no answer for Baldan’s pace, ending up second and on the front row of the grid for Saturday’s opening race later in the day.
ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt was the leading Honda racer in third, a further tenth back, ahead of the CUPRA of Monlau Motorsport’s Franco Girolami, who had not seemed to have the pace to challenge for pole throughout.
Girolami’s compatriot Ignacio Montenegro put his ALM Motorsport Honda in fifth, just under seven tenths from pole, ahead of MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson in sixth in the sole Lynk & Co in the field.
Monlau Motorsport’s Viktor Davidovski and SP Compétition’s Giovanni Scamardi will share the fourth row of the grid in their new CUPRAs respectively.
The top ten was completed by GOAT Racing’s Felipe Fernández and ALM Motorsport’s Levente Losonczy, giving the latter the reverse-grid pole for Sunday’s second race.
However, Losonczy is under investigation by the stewards for an incident with newcomer Santiago Concepción at Turn 12, which is being investigated after the session.
Just missing out on the reverse pole was GOAT Racing’s Rubén Fernández and Concepción, who qualified in last of the 12-car field over two seconds off the pole pace.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 16:15 CEST (15:15 BST).
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 8 |  |
Nicola BALDAN | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 4 | 1:36.470 | – |
| 2 | 7 |  |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 5 | 1:36.902 | 0.432 |
| 3 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | 1:37.004 | 0.534 |
| 4 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 6 | 1:37.018 | 0.548 |
| 5 | 23 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | 1:37.167 | 0.697 |
| 6 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 4 | 1:37.191 | 0.721 |
| 7 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 6 | 1:37.353 | 0.883 |
| 8 | 34 |  |
Giovanni SCAMARDI | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 5 | 1:37.394 | 0.924 |
| 9 | 19 |  |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | 1:37.580 | 1.110 |
| 10 | 64 |  |
Levente LOSONCZY | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:37.686 | 1.216 |
| 11 | 11 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:37.939 | 1.469 |
| 12 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:38.555 | 2.085 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 11 | 1:37.128 | – |
| 2 | 7 | |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 10 | 1:37.289 | 0.161 |
| 3 | 72 | |
Franco GIROLAMI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 10 | 1:37.458 | 0.330 |
| 4 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 9 | 1:37.533 | 0.405 |
| 5 | 110 | |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 10 | 1:37.576 | 0.448 |
| 6 | 27 | |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:37.695 | 0.567 |
| 7 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:37.819 | 0.691 |
| 8 | 23 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:37.868 | 0.740 |
| 9 | 64 | |
Levente LOSONCZY | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:37.909 | 0.781 |
| 10 | 34 | |
Giovanni SCAMARDI | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 9 | 1:38.047 | 0.919 |
| 11 | 11 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:38.193 | 1.065 |
| 12 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:38.770 | 1.642 |