Josh Files posted the fastest time in qualifying for the TCR Europe series at the TT Circuit Assen, with the Honda driver pipping the Audi of Jean-Karl Vernay by less than a tenth of a second.
Files had earlier posted the ninth best time in Q1, before the Brit upped the pace in Q2 to take his first pole of the year and the first for his KCMG team.
But Files will actually start race one from fourth on the grid after his penalty from the last event in Hungary is applied, giving pole position to Frenchman Vernay.
Vernay, who had been quickest in Friday’s morning practice session before missing the second session due to damage, showed that his relative lack of track time compared to his rivals was no disadvantage and put the sole Audi on the front row of the grid, having also been quickest in Q1.
Comtoyou Racing’s Maxime Potty underlined the strengths of the Volkswagen-Audi Group cars by putting his Volkswagen Golf GTi in third, albeit six tenths off the pace in a relatively spaced-out session around the 4.5 km circuit.
Target Competition’s Kris Richard was fifth, just behind M1RA’s Dániel Nagy. Files will start from fourth, ahead of team-mate Attila Tassi in sixth.
Julien Briché had put his Peugeot in sixth when the session initially ended, but a spate of lap time reinstatements long after the session was over dropped the Frenchman to ninth.
Nagy was one of those to get his best lap back after it was initially deleted for a track limits exceedance at Turn 15, moving him ahead of Richard into fourth.
Also getting his best lap back was Target Competition’s Dušan Borković in seventh, although like Files the Serbian driver will also have a three-place grid penalty from Budapest applied, leaving him in tenth for race one.
One of the biggest benefactors of the reinstatements was championship leader Mikel Azcona who was eighth, moving the PCR Sport CUPRA driver into the top ten and giving him a third place reverse grid position for race two.
Stefano Comini put his Autodis Racing by THX Honda in 11th ahead of PCR Sport’s Dutch local Danny Kroes in 12th, with the latter initially claiming the reverse-grid pole position for race two before then being put back to 12th.
Autodis Racing by THX’s Loris Cencetti was 13th fastest, missing out on the cut for Q2 by just under a tenth of a second, unable to follow up on his Q2 appearance at the previous round.
Having been fastest in Friday’s second practice session and second-quickest in the session before, Target Competition’s Reece Barr could only qualify in 14th position (13th after Borković’s penalty) after having had his best lap time deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 15 – which would have put him inside the top 12 – in the final minute of the session.
Jens Reno Møller was 15th fastest, the slowest of the Honda drivers to post a time, ahead of TCR Europe newcomer Peter Terting in 16th, with the German having lost his best lap time for exceeding track limits early in the session.
Macedonian racer Igor Stefganovski put his Hyundai in 17th, ahead of the Peugeot of Francisco Abreu in 18th, with the latter having had three of his best lap times disallowed for repeatedly exceeding track limits at Turns 8 and 15.
PSS Racing Team’s Viktor Davidovsky failed to post a time in Q1 after going off into the tyres at Turn 7, bringing out the red flags for five minutes whilst the tyre barriers were repaired.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 14:51 CEST (13:51 BST).
Amended Q2 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 99 | Josh FILES |  |
Hell Energy Racing with KCMG | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 4 | 1:44.522 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY |  |
Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | 1:44.607 | 0.085 |
| 3 | 88 | Maxime POTTY |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 4 | 1:45.189 | 0.667 |
| 4 | 999 | Dániel NAGY |  |
M1RA | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:45.282 | 0.760 |
| 5 | 94 | Kris RICHARD |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 6 | 1:45.330 | 0.808 |
| 6 | 9 | Attila TASSI | |
Hell Energy Racing with KCMG | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 4 | 1:45.351 | 0.829 |
| 7 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:45.387 | 0.865 |
| 8 | 25 | Mikel AZCONA |  |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 5 | 1:45.491 | 0.969 |
| 9 | 4 | Julien BRICHÉ | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 4 | 1:45.575 | 1.053 |
| 10 | 34 | Stian PAULSEN |  |
Stian Paulsen Racing | CUPRA TCR | 5 | 1:45.651 | 1.129 |
| 11 | 42 | Stefano COMINI | |
Autodis Racing by THX | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 5 | 1:45.802 | 1.280 |
| 12 | 38 | Danny KROES |  |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 5 | 1:45.843 | 1.321 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 69 | Jean-Karl VERNAY | |
Leopard Lukoil Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 8 | 1:44.713 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 9 | Attila TASSI | |
Hell Energy Racing with KCMG | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 8 | 1:44.925 | 0.212 |
| 3 | 88 | Maxime POTTY | |
Comtoyou Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 8 | 1:45.124 | 0.411 |
| 4 | 25 | Mikel AZCONA | |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 1:45.125 | 0.412 |
| 5 | 94 | Kris RICHARD | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:45.154 | 0.441 |
| 6 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 1:45.234 | 0.521 |
| 7 | 38 | Danny KROES | |
PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 1:45.281 | 0.568 |
| 8 | 42 | Stefano COMINI | |
Autodis Racing by THX | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 8 | 1:45.317 | 0.604 |
| 9 | 99 | Josh FILES | |
Hell Energy Racing with KCMG | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 9 | 1:45.388 | 0.675 |
| 10 | 34 | Stian PAULSEN | |
Stian Paulsen Racing | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 1:45.590 | 0.877 |
| 11 | 999 | Dániel NAGY | |
M1RA | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:45.686 | 0.973 |
| 12 | 4 | Julien BRICHÉ | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 9 | 1:45.768 | 1.055 |
| 13 | 14 | Loris CENCETTI |  |
Autodis Racing by THX | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 9 | 1:45.854 | 1.141 |
| 14 | 8 | Reece BARR |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:45.916 | 1.203 |
| 15 | 11 | Jens Reno MØLLER |  |
Reno Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 9 | 1:46.280 | 1.567 |
| 16 | 15 | Peter TERTING |  |
Autodis Racing by Piro Sports | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:46.376 | 1.663 |
| 17 | 7 | Igor STEFANOVSKI |  |
Stefanovski Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:46.423 | 1.710 |
| 18 | 23 | Francisco ABREU |  |
Sports & You | Peugeot 308 TCR | 9 | 1:46.671 | 1.958 |
| 19 | 35 | Munkong SATHIENTHIRAKUL |  |
Monlau Competición | CUPRA TCR | 9 | 1:46.974 | 2.261 |
| 20 | 63 | Giovanni ALTOÈ |  |
Pit Lane Competizioni | Audi RS3 LMS TCR DSG | 7 | 1:48.267 | 3.554 |
| 21 | 21 | Marie BAUS-COPPENS | |
JSB Compétition | CUPRA TCR DSG | 10 | 1:48.915 | 4.202 |
| 22 | 10 | Viktor DAVIDOVSKY | |
PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK7 TCR | 1 | No time | N/A |