GOAT Racing’s Felipe Fernández will start the opening TCR Europe race at Spa-Francorchamps from pole position after his lap time was wrongfully deleted for exceeding track limits and subsequently reinstated.
Fernández had initially only been classified in ninth, but was given pole back when his lap time of 2 minutes 49.837 seconds was reinstated.
Just before Q1 started, rain began to fall on the Belgian circuit, resulting in lap times being significantly slower than in practice.
Monlau Motorsport’s Franco Girolami ultimately topped that initial session, posting a time of 2 minutes 36.502 seconds, having left it until late to post a time due to completing a routine tyre switchover.
With 12 of the field’s 14 cars progressing into Q2, it meant that only the Baldan Group by Comtoyou cars of Jimmy Clairet, in a CUPRA, and Nicola Baldan, in an Audi, failed to get through to Q2, as a result of having both of their fast lap times disallowed for exceeding track limits.
The Q1 session was effectively shortened when Eric Gené crashed off at the Eau Rouge corner and damaged the front of his CUPRA, bringing out the red flags, with no further running in Q1 as a result.
Gené couldn’t take part in Q2 as his damaged car was yet to make it to the pitlane, leaving only 11 cars for the second part.
It was initially believed that ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt had taken pole in his Honda, ahead of Comte’s CUPRA, aided by the fact that both Fernández and Girolami had their best laps deleted for exceeding track limits. In the end, Volt was quicker than Girolami’s time but not Fernández’s reinstated lap, leaving Volt to start from second on the grid.
Comte was third, with Girolami reinstated to fourth, 0.238 seconds from pole.
Rubén Fernández Gil was fifth quickest in his GOAT Racing Honda, albeit over a second away from pole, ahead of MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson in sixth.
FP2 pace-setter Santiago Concepción was seventh in his Honda, sharing the third row of the grid with ALM Motorsport’s Ignacio Montenegro in eighth.
For the reversed-grid second race on Saturday, the changes mean SP Compétition’s Giovanni Scamardi will start from pole after qualifying in tenth, with ALM’s Levente Losonczy alongside.
Race one is set to get underway at 18:20 CEST (17:20 BST) on Friday and will be livestreamed via Facebook.
Revised Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 19 |  |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 2:49.837 | – |
| 2 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 2:49.892 | 0.055 |
| 3 | 7 |  |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 4 | 2:50.044 | 0.207 |
| 4 | 72 |  |
Franco GIROLAMI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 4 | 2:50.075 | 0.238 |
| 5 | 11 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 2:50.944 | 1.107 |
| 6 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 4 | 2:51.304 | 1.467 |
| 7 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 2:51.326 | 1.489 |
| 8 | 23 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 2:51.455 | 1.618 |
| 9 | 64 |  |
Levente LOSONCZY | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 2:53.469 | 3.632 |
| 10 | 34 |  |
Giovanni SCAMARDI | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 4 | 2:53.774 | 3.937 |
| 11 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 4 | 2:54.807 | 4.970 |
| 12 | 21 | |
Eric GENÉ | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 72 | |
Franco GIROLAMI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 5 | 2:36.502 | – |
| 2 | 27 | |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | 2:36.821 | 0.319 |
| 3 | 23 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | 2:37.337 | 0.835 |
| 4 | 7 | |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 6 | 2:37.795 | 1.293 |
| 5 | 21 | |
Eric GENÉ | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 4 | 2:37.852 | 1.350 |
| 6 | 64 | |
Levente LOSONCZY | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | 2:40.825 | 4.323 |
| 7 | 11 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 2:43.231 | 6.729 |
| 8 | 110 | |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 5 | 2:53.760 | 17.258 |
| 9 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | 2:57.474 | 20.972 |
| 10 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | 2:58.594 | 22.092 |
| 11 | 34 | |
Giovanni SCAMARDI | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 6 | 2:58.629 | 22.127 |
| 12 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 6 | 2:59.624 | 23.122 |
| 13 | 16 | |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 6 | 3:00.312 | 23.810 |
| 14 | 8 |  |
Nicola BALDAN | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 6 | 3:02.268 | 25.766 |