Mat’o Homola secured pole position for the opening round of the TCR Europe season at the Hungaroring, edging out Target Competition team-mate Andreas Bäckman as Hyundai cars filled the top four places.
Slovak racer Homola was a mere 0.019 seconds faster than his Swedish team-mate, having found almost eight tenths of a second between his Q1 and Q2 times.
The second row of the grid will also feature South Korean machinery, as Q1 pace-setter Nelson Panciatici put his M Racing i30 between the Target cars, with Josh Files securing fourth, just 0.151 seconds from pole.
Comtoyou Racing’s Gilles Magnus was fifth in the best Audi, ahead of the leading Peugeot of JSB Compétition’s Julien Briché in sixth. The latter had earlier been third quickest in Q1, but was unable to go faster in Q2.
Jessica Bäckman, who had set the pace in second practice, put her Hyundai in seventh, ahead of the M1RA Hyundai of Hungarian home racer Dániel Nagy in eighth.
Serbian racer Dušan Borković and TCR newcomer Santiago Urrutia completed the top ten in their Hyundai and Audi respectively, giving the latter the reverse-grid pole position for Sunday’s second race.
Just missing out on the reverse grid were the second M Racing Hyundai of Natan Bihel in 11th and the Renault Mégane of John Filippi in 12th, the latter making an impressive Q2 appearance in the unproven car.
More to follow…
Q2 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:53.049 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:53.068 | 0.019 |
| 3 | 12 | Nelson PANCIATICI |  |
M Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 3 | 1:53.148 | 0.099 |
| 4 | 9 | Josh FILES |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:53.200 | 0.151 |
| 5 | 16 | Gilles MAGNUS |  |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | 1:53.311 | 0.262 |
| 6 | 24 | Julien BRICHÉ | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 4 | 1:53.439 | 0.390 |
| 7 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:53.474 | 0.425 |
| 8 | 99 | Dániel NAGY |  |
M1RA Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:53.487 | 0.438 |
| 9 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ |  |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 5 | 1:53.652 | 0.603 |
| 10 | 55 | Santiago URRUTIA |  |
Team WRT | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 4 | 1:53.777 | 0.728 |
| 11 | 25 | Natan BIHEL | |
M Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 4 | 1:54.631 | 1.582 |
| 12 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Vuković Motorsport | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 3 | 1:54.977 | 1.928 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 12 | Nelson PANCIATICI | |
M Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:53.064 | 0.000 |
| 2 | 16 | Gilles MAGNUS | |
Comtoyou Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 7 | 1:53.329 | 0.265 |
| 3 | 24 | Julien BRICHÉ | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 9 | 1:53.405 | 0.341 |
| 4 | 99 | Dániel NAGY | |
M1RA Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:53.458 | 0.394 |
| 5 | 9 | Josh FILES | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 7 | 1:53.523 | 0.459 |
| 6 | 26 | Jessica BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:53.740 | 0.676 |
| 7 | 70 | Mat’o HOMOLA | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:53.825 | 0.761 |
| 8 | 62 | Dušan BORKOVIĆ | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:53.866 | 0.802 |
| 9 | 27 | John FILIPPI | |
Vuković Motorsport | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 8 | 1:53.872 | 0.808 |
| 10 | 55 | Santiago URRUTIA | |
Team WRT | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 1:53.956 | 0.892 |
| 11 | 19 | Andreas BÄCKMAN | |
Target Competition | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 9 | 1:53.965 | 0.901 |
| 12 | 25 | Natan BIHEL | |
M Racing | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 10 | 1:54.123 | 1.059 |
| 13 | 88 | Maxime POTTY | |
Team WRT | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | 1:54.134 | 1.070 |
| 14 | 7 | Aurélien COMTE | |
DG Sport Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 1:54.249 | 1.185 |
| 15 | 111 | Teddy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 1:54.351 | 1.287 |
| 16 | 45 | Gianni MORBIDELLI |  |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 8 | 1:54.383 | 1.319 |
| 17 | 112 | Jimmy CLAIRET | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 9 | 1:54.510 | 1.446 |
| 18 | 30 | Luca FILIPPI | |
BRC Racing Team | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 8 | 1:54.658 | 1.594 |
| 19 | 2 | Stéphane LEMERET | |
Boutsen Ginion Racing | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 6 | 1:54.738 | 1.674 |
| 20 | 10 | Viktor DAVIDOVSKI |  |
PSS Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 10 | 1:54.871 | 1.807 |
| 21 | 17 | Martin RYBA | |
Brutal Fish Racing Team | Honda Civic Type R FK8 TCR | 10 | 1:54.970 | 1.906 |
| 22 | 46 | Olli KANGAS |  |
WestCoast Racing | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | 1:55.025 | 1.961 |
| 23 | 3 | Davit KAJAIA |  |
PCR Sport with Georgia | CUPRA TCR | 9 | 1:55.042 | 1.978 |
| 24 | 5 | Alex MORGAN | |
Wolf-Power Racing | Renault Mégane RS TCR | 7 | 1:55.185 | 2.121 |
| 25 | 331 | Milovan VESNIĆ | |
ASK Vesnić | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 1:55.265 | 2.201 |
| 26 | 96 | Abdulla Ali AL-KHELAIFI |  |
QMMF Racing by PCR Sport | CUPRA TCR | 9 | 1:55.456 | 2.392 |
| 27 | 44 | Lilou WADOUX | |
JSB Compétition | Peugeot 308 TCR | 10 | 1:55.819 | 2.755 |
| 28 | 81 | Stéphane VENTAJA | |
Team Clairet Sport | Peugeot 308 TCR | 8 | 1:56.080 | 3.016 |
| 29 | 377 | Jakub WYSZOMIRSKY |  |
ASK Vesnić | Honda Civic Type R FK2 TCR | 9 | 1:56.503 | 3.439 |
| 30 | 324 | Jáchym GALÁŠ |  |
GT2 Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 7 | 1:56.545 | 3.481 |
| 31 | 21 | Marie BAUS-COPPENS | |
JSB Compétition | CUPRA TCR | 10 | 1:56.545 | 3.481 |
| 32 | 376 | Petr ČíŽEK | |
Fullinrace Academy | CUPRA TCR | 10 | 1:56.998 | 3.934 |
| 33 | 322 | Carol WITTKE |  |
Fullinrace Academy | CUPRA TCR | 8 | 1:57.268 | 4.204 |
| 34 | 332 | Rudi PEŠOVIĆ | |
GM Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 9 | 1:58.271 | 5.207 |
| 35 | 307 | Maciej ŁASKIEWICZ | |
RTM Motorsport | Volkswagen Golf GTi TCR | 9 | 1:58.345 | 5.281 |
| 36 | 374 | Žarko KNEGO |  |
Auto Klub Dubrovnik Racing | CUPRA TCR | 9 | 1:58.567 | 5.503 |
| 37 | 8 | Luca ENGSTLER | |
M1RA Motorsport | Hyundai i30 N TCR | 1 | No time | N/A |