Nicola Baldan secures first TCR Europe pole position at Zolder

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