Yann Ehrlacher secured his first pole position in the FIA TCR World Tour since Argentina last year, as the Cyan Racing driver beat team-mate Santiago Urrutia to pole position in Morocco by a quarter of a second.
Ehrlacher, who had topped second practice, was second-quickest to Hyundai’s Mikel Azcona in the first part of qualifying, but the Frenchman then lapped four tenths of a second quicker in Q2 to edge out his Lynk & Co team-mate Urrutia.
Ehrlacher had already been on top of the times when he improved his lap with six minutes left in Q2, shortly before the red flags came out when Team Clairet Sport’s Julien Piguet damaged his Audi on a tyre stack at the final chicane.
Urrutia will line up alongside his Lynk & Co team-mate on the front row of the grid for Saturday’s opening race, having got himself into second on his first ture flying lap early on in the session.
Michelisz, who set the pace in FP1, was the leading Hyundai driver in third, just under three tenths back, ahead of BRC Racing team-mate Néstor Girolami in fourth.
Volcano Motorsport’s John Filippi emerged as the top Audi driver in fifth, a further tenth adrift, ahead of Azcona in sixth, with the Spaniard unable to better his Q1 time in the all-important Q2 session.
Piguet was seventh in his Audi, despite having his best time disallowed, which was only three thousandths quicker than his second-best, for causing the red flag stoppage six minutes from the end of Q2.
The leading Honda was that of GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri in eighth, immediately ahead of ninth-placed Dušan Borković in the second Civic, both drivers posting identical lap times but the Argentine starting ahead due to posting his lap first.
Ma Qing Hua completed the top ten, the Cyan Racing driver having broken into the top ten with just three minutes to go, thus securing himself the reverse-grid pole position for the second race on Saturday.
That left Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk and GOAT Racing’s Marco Butti to miss out on the reverse-grid placings, starting from 11th and 12th respectively for both races.
The most high-profile loss from Q1 was home hero Mehdi Bennani, who crashed his new CUPRA Leon VZ half-way through the session, causing a red flag.
The Moroccan had misjudged the second chicane after the eastern loop being used for the first time and put his car into the barriers, causing moderate front end damage that saw him limp back to the pits but take no further part in the session, leaving him 13th.
Also denting the home hopes, Sami Taoufik was only 14th, the Moroccan having suffered with undetected right-rear suspension damage in practice which left him almost a second off the Q1 pace, with only GOAT Racing’s Victor Fernández behind him on the grid.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:30 local time (11:30 BST, 12:30 CEST) on Saturday, followed by race two at 15:30 local time.
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 10 | 49.641 | – |
| 2 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 10 | 49.900 | 0.259 |
| 3 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 49.939 | 0.298 |
| 4 | 129 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 13 | 49.977 | 0.336 |
| 5 | 127 | |
John FILIPPI | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 15 | 50.104 | 0.463 |
| 6 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 50.145 | 0.504 |
| 7 | 30 | |
Julien PIGUET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 6 | 50.156 | 0.515 |
| 8 | 186 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 13 | 50.170 | 0.529 |
| 9 | 62 |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 12 | 50.170 | 0.529 |
| 10 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 15 | 50.192 | 0.551 |
| 11 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 11 | 50.382 | 0.741 |
| 12 | 199 |  |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 50.403 | 0.762 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 196 | |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 18 | 50.069 | – |
| 2 | 168 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 20 | 50.093 | 0.024 |
| 3 | 105 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 15 | 50.104 | 0.035 |
| 4 | 112 | |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 20 | 50.123 | 0.054 |
| 5 | 155 | |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 18 | 50.173 | 0.104 |
| 6 | 111 | |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 22 | 50.313 | 0.244 |
| 7 | 129 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 18 | 50.330 | 0.261 |
| 8 | 199 | |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 25 | 50.330 | 0.261 |
| 9 | 127 | |
John FILIPPI | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 19 | 50.349 | 0.280 |
| 10 | 62 | |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 15 | 50.372 | 0.303 |
| 11 | 186 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 19 | 50.381 | 0.312 |
| 12 | 30 | |
Julien PIGUET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 21 | 50.451 | 0.382 |
| 13 | 125 |  |
Mehdi BENNANI | Team Clairet Sport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 13 | 50.537 | 0.486 |
| 14 | 212 | |
Sami TAOUFIK | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 20 | 51.010 | 0.941 |
| 15 | 41 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 20 | 51.876 | 1.807 |