Uruguayan Santiago Urrutia secured a sensational home pole in qualifying for the TCR World Tour and TCR South America races at El Pinar in Uruguay, with Cyan Racing team-mate Thed Björk a close second.
Urrutia, who had topped the second free practice session earlier in the day, had in fact been pipped by Björk to the fastest time in ‘Group B’ – as Q1 in qualifying had been split into two due to the size of the grid – by almost four tenths of a second.
But Urrutia upped his game in the all-important Q2 session, posting a lap of 1 minute 19.800 seconds to set the fastest time of the weekend so far.
With just a minute to go, Björk had been a mere 0.002 seconds down on Urrutia, but as Urrutia improved on his final lap, even though Björk did the same, posting a 1:19.885, he couldn’t get close enough to the home hero.
Squadra Martino’s Néstor Girolami was third quickest, three tenths adrift, after the Argentine leapt three places with his final lap.
That demoted BRC Racing’s Norbert Michelisz to fourth, the leading Hyundai driver exactly four tenths slower than Urrutia.
Comtoyou Racing Audi duo Frédéric Vervisch and Rob Huff posted identical lap times in Q2, and whilst Huff’s time in his part of Q1 had been quicker than Vervisch’s in his respective session, it will be Vervisch who starts fifth for Sunday’s first race, courtesy of posting his Q2 time first, leaving Huff to start sixth.
Juan Manuel Casella was the best of the TCR South America field in seventh, putting his Squadra Martino Honda as the only other driver within a second of Urrutia’s time.
BRC’s Mikel Azcona was eighth in his Hyundai, with the top ten being completed by Cyan duo Yann Ehrlacher and Ma Qing Hua. That gives the latter duo the front row of the grid for the partially reversed second race.
Argentine duo Ignacio Montenegro and Esteban Guerrieri missed out on the grid reversal and will start from 11th and 12th respectively for both races in their Honda and Toyota cars.
With only the top six in each group in the first part of qualifying progressing to Q2, it meant that 20 of the 23 TCR South America field would take no further part in qualifying.
Paladini Racing’s Juan Ángel Rosso was the driver with the quickest time from the combined groups, so the Argentine will start from 13th in both races, with W2 Pro GPS Galid Osman in 14th, the leading Brazilian also being the best CUPRA driver.
Raphael Reis – Montenegro’s main title challenger in TCR South America at present – was just 16th quickest in the Q1 times.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 09:10 local time (13:10 BST, 14:10 CEST) on Sunday.
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 6 | 1:19.800 | – |
| 2 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 6 | 1:19.885 | 0.085 |
| 3 | 129 |  |
Néstor GIROLAMI | Squadra Martino Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 6 | 1:20.118 | 0.318 |
| 4 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:20.200 | 0.400 |
| 5 | 122 |  |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 6 | 1:20.457 | 0.657 |
| 6 | 179 |  |
Rob HUFF | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 5 | 1:20.457 | 0.657 |
| 7 | 60 | |
Juan Manuel CASELLA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 5 | 1:20.733 | 0.933 |
| 8 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:20.846 | 1.046 |
| 9 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 6 | 1:20.922 | 1.122 |
| 10 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 6 | 1:21.162 | 1.362 |
| 11 | 23 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 5 | 1:21.209 | 1.409 |
| 12 | 86 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | Bratton Tito Bessone Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 6 | 1:25.404 | 1.556 |
Qualifying Group B results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 111 | |
Thed BJÖRK | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 12 | 1:19.917 | – |
| 2 | 112 | |
Santiago URRUTIA | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 10 | 1:20.300 | 0.383 |
| 3 | 105 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 12 | 1:20.361 | 0.444 |
| 4 | 179 | |
Rob HUFF | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 12 | 1:20.852 | 0.935 |
| 5 | 86 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | Bratton Tito Bessone Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 10 | 1:21.054 | 1.137 |
| 6 | 23 | |
Ignacio MONTENEGRO | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 11 | 1:21.389 | 1.472 |
| 7 | 28 |  |
Galid OSMAN | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 11 | 1:21.405 | 1.488 |
| 8 | 24 | |
Frederick BALBI | PMO Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 12 | 1:21.834 | 1.917 |
| 9 | 17 | |
Bernardo LLAVER | Toyota Team Argentina | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 11 | 1:21.854 | 1.937 |
| 10 | 43 | |
Pedro CARDOSO | Scuderia Chiarelli | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 11 | 1:22.004 | 2.087 |
| 11 | 15 | |
Enrique MAGLIONE | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 13 | 1:22.170 | 2.253 |
| 12 | 1 | |
Fabricio PEZZINI | Paladini Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 11 | 1:22.456 | 2.539 |
| 13 | 33 | |
José Manuel SAPAG | Toyota Team Argentina | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 12 | 1:22.819 | 2.902 |
| 14 | 34 | |
Fabio CASAGRANDE | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 10 | 1:23.278 | 3.361 |
| 15 | 35 | |
Gonzalo REILLY | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 11 | 1:23.403 | 3.486 |
Qualifying Group A results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 168 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 11 | 1:20.443 | – |
| 2 | 196 | |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:20.545 | 0.102 |
| 3 | 129 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | Squadra Martino Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 1:20.810 | 0.367 |
| 4 | 155 | |
MA Qing Hua | Cyan Racing Lynk & Co | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 12 | 1:20.871 | 0.428 |
| 5 | 122 | |
Frédéric VERVISCH | Audi Sport Team Comtoyou | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 10 | 1:20.875 | 0.432 |
| 6 | 60 | |
Juan Manuel CASELLA | Squadra Martino | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 11 | 1:21.290 | 0.847 |
| 7 | 2 | |
Juan Ángel ROSSO | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 11 | 1:21.365 | 0.922 |
| 8 | 8 | |
Rafael SUZUKI | PMO Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 10 | 1:21.563 | 1.120 |
| 9 | 77 | |
Raphael REIS | W2 Pro GP | CUPRA Leon Competición TCR | 12 | 1:21.716 | 1.273 |
| 10 | 5 | |
Fabián YANNANTUONI | Paladini Racing | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 12 | 1:22.186 | 1.743 |
| 11 | 70 | |
Diego NUNES | Cobra Racing Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 11 | 1:22.574 | 2.131 |
| 12 | 13 | |
Carlos SILVA | Alfa Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 11 | 1:24.112 | 3.669 |
| 13 | 10 | |
Adalberto BAPTISTA | Cobra Racing Team | Toyota Corolla GRS TCR | 10 | 1:25.177 | 4.734 |
| 14 | 36 | |
Damián FINESCHI | PMO Racing | Peugeot 308 TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |
| 15 | 90 | |
Michell BONNIN | Alfa Racing | Alfa Romeo Giulietta TCR | 0 | No time | N/A |