ALM Motorsport’s Ignacio Montenegro kept his TCR Europe title hopes alive with a much-needed pole position at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, beating series leader Franco Girolami by just 0.073 seconds.
The ALM-run Hondas had been on the pace throughout in the qualifying session, as young Estonian Ruben Volt had earlier topped the Q1 session with a time which was ultimately quicker than Q2, a 1 minute 40.354 seconds lap.
Montenegro, who had been second in Q1, then topped the all-important Q2 session to gain an additional ten points, to close his gap to the championship leader to 28 points.
Girolami made sure that he actually extended his lead over closest title challenger Aurélien Comte to nine points by qualifying his Monlau Motorsport CURPA in second, less than a tenth away from Montenegro.
MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson put in a late charge to qualify his Lynk & Co in third, 0.143 seconds adrift, ahead of an impressive performance by GOAT Racing’s Santiago Concepción in fourth.
SP Compétition’s Comte could only manage fifth, just under three tenths from pole, ahead of Volt in sixth, the Honda ace unable to replicate his performance from Q1.
Comtoyou’s Nicola Baldan put his Audi in seventh, ahead of wildcard entry Jenson Brickly in eighth in his self-run CUPRA.
Jimmy Clairet (Comtoyou) and Viktor Davidovski (Monlau Motorsport) completed the top ten, giving the latter the reverse-grid pole position for Sunday’s second race.
ALM’s Levente Losonczy was 11th, with the Hungarian having earlier caused a red-flag stoppage in Q1 when he went off into the gravel. GOAT Racing’s Felipe Fernández was 12th, around a second off the pace.
His brother Rubén Fernández just missed out on getting into Q2, lapping 1.3 seconds off the Q1 pace to qualify in 13th, ahead of another wildcard entry, that of PMA Motorsport’s Nicolas Taylor in 14th.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 16:40 CEST (15:40 BST).
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 23 |  |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 1:40.606 | – |
| 2 | 72 | |
Franco GIROLAMI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 5 | 1:40.679 | 0.073 |
| 3 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 5 | 1:40.749 | 0.143 |
| 4 | 33 |  |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 1:04.854 | 0.248 |
| 5 | 7 |  |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 5 | 1:40.896 | 0.290 |
| 6 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:40.905 | 0.299 |
| 7 | 8 |  |
Nicola BALDAN | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 1:40.907 | 0.301 |
| 8 | 246 |  |
Jenson BRICKLEY | Jenson Brickley Racing | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 4 | 1:41.197 | 0.591 |
| 9 | 16 | |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 6 | 1:41.378 | 0.772 |
| 10 | 110 |  |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 5 | 1:41.408 | 0.802 |
| 11 | 64 |  |
Levente LOSONCZY | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:41.543 | 0.937 |
| 12 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | 1:41.549 | 0.943 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 27 | |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | 1:40.354 | – |
| 2 | 23 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 1:40.453 | 0.099 |
| 3 | 72 | |
Franco GIROLAMI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 9 | 1:40.858 | 0.504 |
| 4 | 16 | |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 9 | 1:41.075 | 0.721 |
| 5 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Baldan Group by Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 1:41.116 | 0.762 |
| 6 | 7 | |
Aurélien COMTE | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 8 | 1:41.214 | 0.860 |
| 7 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:41.267 | 0.913 |
| 8 | 64 | |
Levente LOSONCZY | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 1:41.368 | 1.014 |
| 9 | 110 | |
Viktor DAVIDOVSKI | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 9 | 1:41.469 | 1.115 |
| 10 | 246 | |
Jenson BRICKLEY | Jenson Brickley Racing | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 11 | 1:41.487 | 1.133 |
| 11 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 8 | 1:41.556 | 1.202 |
| 12 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:41.582 | 1.228 |
| 13 | 11 | |
Rubén FERNÁNDEZ Gil | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:41.681 | 1.327 |
| 14 | 17 |  |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 8 | 1:41.918 | 1.564 |
| 15 | 34 |  |
Giovanni SCAMARDI | SP Compétition | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 9 | 1:42.045 | 1.691 |
| 16 | 54 | |
Sandro PELATTI | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 8 | 1:43.184 | 2.830 |
| 17 | 41 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | RC2 Junior Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 1:43.362 | 3.008 |
| 18 | 59 | |
Daniel TEIXEIRA | JT59 Racing Team | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 7 | 1:44.049 | 3.695 |
| 19 | 21 | |
Eric GENÉ | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA León VZ TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |