Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia claimed pole position for the joint FIA TCR World Tour and TCR South America races at Interlagos in Brazil, beating GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri by two tenths of a second in a heavily delayed session.
Urrutia, who had earlier topped first practice and been eighth in the second session, topped the all-important Q2 session over Guerrieri by exactly two tenths of a second.
It gives the Uruguayan his first pole since his home race last year, having lapped the Sao Paolo circuit in 1 minute 41.840 seconds.
Two-time World Touring Car Cup champion Yann Ehrlacher put his Lynk & Co third, meaning he will start directly behind his team-mate for race one, ahead of the GOAT Racing Honda of Marco Butti in fourth.
Néstor Girolami was the leading BRC Racing Hyundai in fifth, in what was a mixed session for the team. Whilst the Argentine was seven tenths away from the Q2 pace, his team-mates were over a second adrift, with Mikel Azcona failing to even make it into Q2.
Thed Björk was sixth in his Cyan-run Lynk & Co, the only other driver within a second of team-mate Urrutia’s pace.
W2 Pro GP’s Raphael Reis was the leading TCR South America driver in seventh, ahead of series rival and fellow Brazilian Rafael Suzuki in eighth in the best of the PMO Racing Peugeots.
The top ten was completed by Cyan’s Ma Qing Hua and BRC’s Norbert Michelisz, giving the latter the reverse-grid pole for Sunday’s second race.
Dušan Borković will be disappointed to have missed out on that pole as he qualified in 11th, just over a tenth further back, even though the GOAT Racing driver had earlier topped Q1 outright.
Paladini Racing’s Juan Ángel Rosso completed the Q2 field in the leading Toyota. Azcona will start from 13th after missing progression into Q2 by just 0.018 seconds.
Q1 had earlier been delayed by almost an hour due to a crash between PMO Racing’s Marcos Regadas and Squadra Martino’s Enrique Maglione at Turn 1, which saw the latter’s Honda end up completely engulfed by the tyre barriers, which took a significant amount of time to rebuild.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 11:10 local time (15:10 BST, 16:10 CEST) on Sunday followed by race two at 14:40 local time (18:40 BST, 19:40 CEST).
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 4 | 1:41.840 | – |
| 2 | 186 |  |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:42.040 | 0.200 |
| 3 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 4 | 1:42.208 | 0.368 |
| 4 | 199 |  |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 1:42.252 | 0.412 |
| 5 | 129 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 1:42.592 | 0.752 |
| 6 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 4 | 1:42.708 | 0.868 |
| 7 | 77 |  |
Raphael REIS | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 4 | 1:42.901 | 1.061 |
| 8 | 8 | |
Rafael SUZUKI | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 4 | 1:42.950 | 1.110 |
| 9 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 4 | 1:43.229 | 1.389 |
| 10 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:43.234 | 1.394 |
| 11 | 62 |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:43.358 | 1.518 |
| 12 | 16 | |
Juan Ángel ROSSO | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 4 | 1:43.535 | 1.695 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 62 | |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | 1:42.489 | – |
| 2 | 111 | |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 8 | 1:42.513 | 0.024 |
| 3 | 168 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 7 | 1:42.570 | 0.081 |
| 4 | 112 | |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 7 | 1:42.589 | 0.100 |
| 5 | 186 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:42.623 | 0.134 |
| 6 | 199 | |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 7 | 1:42.646 | 0.157 |
| 7 | 155 | |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 7 | 1:42.652 | 0.163 |
| 8 | 105 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:42.822 | 0.333 |
| 9 | 77 | |
Raphael REIS | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 8 | 1:42.874 | 0.385 |
| 10 | 8 | |
Rafael SUZUKI | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 7 | 1:42.897 | 0.408 |
| 11 | 129 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:42.966 | 0.477 |
| 12 | 16 | |
Juan Ángel ROSSO | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 8 | 1:43.015 | 0.526 |
| 13 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:43.033 | 0.544 |
| 14 | 9 | |
Nelson PIQUET JR | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 7 | 1:43.060 | 0.571 |
| 15 | 127 | |
John FILIPPI | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 7 | 1:43.084 | 0.595 |
| 16 | 43 | |
Pedro CARDOSO | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 7 | 1:43.397 | 0.908 |
| 17 | 28 | |
Galid OSMAN | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 8 | 1:43.451 | 0.962 |
| 18 | 60 | |
Juan Manuel CASELLA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:43.604 | 1.115 |
| 19 | 17 | |
Matías ROSSI | Toyota Team Argentina | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 10 | 1:43.608 | 1.119 |
| 20 | 44 | |
Leonel PERNÍA | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 8 | 1:44.081 | 1.592 |
| 21 | 5 | |
Fabián YANNANTUONI | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 8 | 1:44.094 | 1.605 |
| 22 | 7 | |
Thiago VIVACQUA | Cobra Racing Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 8 | 1:44.223 | 1.734 |
| 23 | 15 | |
Enrique MAGLIONE | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 3 | 1:44.589 | 2.100 |
| 24 | 27 | |
Marcos REGADAS | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 3 | 1:44.674 | 2.185 |
| 25 | 34 | |
Fabio CASAGRANDE | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 9 | 1:44.705 | 2.216 |
| 26 | 47 | |
Thiago VIVACQUA | Cobra Racing Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 9 | 1:44.873 | 2.384 |
| 27 | 37 | |
Guilherme REISCHL | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 8 | 1:45.443 | 2.954 |
| 28 | 73 | |
Diego GUTIERREZ | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 8 | 1:45.870 | 3.381 |