Jimmy Clairet secured the first pole position of the year in qualifying for the TCR Europe series at the Autódromo do Algarve in Portugal, edging out fellow Audi racer Felice Jelmini by just 0.046 seconds.
Jimmy Clairet had been the fastest overall in Friday’s practice session, and the Frenchman continued that pace on Saturday by going sixth fastest initially in Q1 before emerging as the fastest of all in Q2, edging out Jelmini, who had a couple of minutes earlier gone to the top.
The front row of the grid will be an all-Audi affair, as PMA Motorsport’s Jelmini qualified in second.
Monlau Motorsport’s Eric Gené was the leading CUPRA driver in third, the FP1 pace-setter ending up within a tenth of pole, 0.059 seconds adrift.
MM Motorsport’s Marco Butti was fourth as the leading Honda, having been quickest of all in the first part of the session, ahead of the RC2 Civic of Felipe Fernández in fifth.
Teddy Clairet put his Audi in sixth, ahead of the leading Solite Indigo Racing Hyundai of Junui Park in seventh.
MA:GP’s Viktor Andersson put his Lynk & Co in eighth, with the top ten completed by Monlau’s Jenson Brickley and Target Competition’s Max Hart.
Track limit exceedances were prolific throughout the session, with Hart in particular stung three times by exceeding the limits at Turn 1.
However, by qualifying in tenth it means that the Irishman will start the reverse-grid second race from pole position, with Brickley alongside.
RC2’s Santiago Concepción qualified his Honda in 11th, with Julien Briché, the only other driver in Q2, a distant 12th, some 2.5 seconds adrift, having failed to put in a competitive lap with his best being over two seconds slower than he had gone in the earlier Q1 session.
Surprisingly, ALM Motorsport’s Ruben Volt, who didn’t have any track limits infractions, missed the cut to get into Q2, the Estonian ending up in 13th after his best lap was six tenths off the Q1 pace.
Junesung Park put his Hyundai in 14th, whilst the reigning TCR Italy champion Nicolas Taylor was only 15th, directly ahead of fellow Audi racer Nicola Baldan in 16th.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 13:45 WEST (13:45 BST, 14:45 CEST).
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 21 |  |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 1:50.798 | – |
| 2 | 44 |  |
Felice JELMINI | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 1:50.844 | 0.046 |
| 3 | 28 |  |
Eric GENÉ Casanovas | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 5 | 1:50.857 | 0.059 |
| 4 | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:50.921 | 0.123 |
| 5 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:50.988 | 0.190 |
| 6 | 20 | |
Teddy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 1:51.170 | 0.372 |
| 7 | 87 |  |
Junui PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:51.231 | 0.433 |
| 8 | 10 |  |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 5 | 1:51.312 | 0.514 |
| 9 | 246 |  |
Jenson BRICKLEY | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 5 | 1:51.395 | 0.597 |
| 10 | 69 |  |
Max HART | Target Srl | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:51.423 | 0.625 |
| 11 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:51.468 | 0.670 |
| 12 | 4 | |
Julien BRICHÉ | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:53.304 | 2.506 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 111 | |
Marco BUTTI | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:50.671 | – |
| 2 | 19 | |
Felipe FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 7 | 1:50.679 | 0.008 |
| 3 | 20 | |
Teddy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 1:50.770 | 0.099 |
| 4 | 44 | |
Felice JELMINI | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 1:50.801 | 0.130 |
| 5 | 28 | |
Eric GENÉ Casanovas | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 8 | 1:50.880 | 0.209 |
| 6 | 21 | |
Jimmy CLAIRET | Team Clairet Sport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 8 | 1:50.930 | 0.259 |
| 7 | 246 | |
Jenson BRICKLEY | Monlau Motorsport | CUPRA Leon VZ TCR | 7 | 1:51.012 | 0.341 |
| 8 | 69 | |
Max HART | Target Srl | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:51.035 | 0.364 |
| 9 | 4 | |
Julien BRICHÉ | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:51.039 | 0.368 |
| 10 | 10 | |
Viktor ANDERSSON | MA:GP | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 8 | 1:51.081 | 0.410 |
| 11 | 33 | |
Santiago CONCEPCIÓN | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | 1:51.093 | 0.422 |
| 12 | 87 | |
Junui PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:51.123 | 0.452 |
| 13 | 27 |  |
Ruben VOLT | ALM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 10 | 1:51.274 | 0.603 |
| 14 | 97 | |
Junesung PARK | Solite Indigo Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:51.281 | 0.610 |
| 15 | 17 |  |
Nicolas TAYLOR | PMA Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 1:51.470 | 0.799 |
| 16 | 8 | |
Nicola BALDAN | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 1:51.718 | 1.047 |
| 17 | 3 | |
Giacomo GHERMANDI | MM Motorsport | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 7 | 1:52.049 | 1.378 |
| 18 | 80 | |
Filippo BARBERI | Aikoa Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 1:52.165 | 1.494 |
| 19 | 45 | |
Victor FERNÁNDEZ Gil | Auto Club RC2 Valles | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:52.395 | 1.724 |
| 20 | 98 | |
Pierre-Arnaud NAVARRO | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 1:53.005 | 2.334 |
| 21 | 6 | |
Jean-Laurent NAVARRO | JSB Compétition | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:53.826 | 3.155 |