Mikel Azcona claimed pole position in qualifying for the FIA TCR World Tour at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, beating Hyundai team-mate Norbert Michelisz by over half a second.
Azcona, who had been quickest in second practice as the times tumbled, dominated Friday’s qualifying session, as he topped both Q1 and Q2.
In Q1 the Spaniard was a comfortable four tenths of a second clear of Michelisz, having lapped in 1 minute 27.014 seconds, before topping Q2 with a slightly slower time of 1:27.178, which was good enough to be 0.507 seconds clear of his BRC Racing team-mate.
Cyan Racing’s Thed Björk was third quickest as the best of the Lynk & Co drivers, the Swede a further two and a half tenths adrift of Michelisz.
Ma Qing Hua remained quick, putting his Lynk & Co alongside Björk on the second row of the grid for Saturday’s opening race.
Esteban Guerrieri was the best of the Honda drivers in fifth, the GOAT Racing driver over 1.3 seconds off the pace of Azcona.
Néstor Girolami followed his Argentine compatriot in sixth, just under a second and a half adrift of his quickest team-mate.
Cyan Racing’s Santiago Urrutia was seventh, ahead of team-mate Yann Ehrlacher in eighth. However, the latter will start last for the opening race due to a 12-place grid penalty for an engine change and a three-place grid penalty for an incident at the previous round.
The top ten was completed by the GOAT Racing duo of Dušan Borković and Marco Butti, giving the latter the reverse-grid pole position for Saturday’s late second race, with Borković alongside on the front row.
Volcano Motorsport’s John Filippi was the best of the Audi drivers in 11th, ahead of the only local driver to make it into Q2, Hyundai’s Mark Wilkins in 12th, some 3.8 seconds off the pace.
IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge regular Harry Gottsacker was the quickest driver to not get out of Q1, putting his Hyundai in 13th. Like Wilkins, Gottsacker is having to find a new set up on his Elantra N TCR this weekend which works with the World Tour’s Kumho tyres.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 08:30 local time on Saturday (13:30 BST, 14:30 CEST), followed by race two at 17:45 local time (22:45 BST, 23:45 CEST).
Q2 result
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 6 | 1:27.178 | – |
| 2 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 6 | 1:27.685 | 0.507 |
| 3 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 6 | 1:27.929 | 0.751 |
| 4 | 155 |  |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 6 | 1:28.050 | 0.872 |
| 5 | 186 |  |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:28.537 | 1.359 |
| 6 | 129 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 5 | 1:28.657 | 1.479 |
| 7 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 5 | 1:28.936 | 1.758 |
| 8 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 5 | 1:29.167 | 1.989 |
| 9 | 62 |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 5 | 1:29.236 | 2.058 |
| 10 | 199 |  |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 7 | 1:29.373 | 2.195 |
| 11 | 127 | |
John FILIPPI | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 6 | 1:29.423 | 2.245 |
| 12 | 98 |  |
Mark WILKINS | Bryan Herta Autosport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 1:31.012 | 3.834 |
Q1 result
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 196 | |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 10 | 1:27.014 | – |
| 2 | 105 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:27.422 | 0.408 |
| 3 | 129 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:27.800 | 0.786 |
| 4 | 155 | |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 10 | 1:27.814 | 0.800 |
| 5 | 111 | |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 10 | 1:27.821 | 0.807 |
| 6 | 112 | |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 7 | 1:27.909 | 0.895 |
| 7 | 168 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 9 | 1:28.118 | 1.104 |
| 8 | 186 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:28.135 | 1.121 |
| 9 | 199 | |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:28.571 | 1.557 |
| 10 | 62 | |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 1:28.712 | 1.698 |
| 11 | 98 | |
Mark WILKINS | Bryan Herta Autosport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 7 | 1:29.005 | 1.991 |
| 12 | 127 | |
John FILIPPI | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 8 | 1:30.102 | 3.088 |
| 13 | 38 |  |
Harry GOTTSACKER | Bryan Herta Autosport | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:30.352 | 3.338 |
| 14 | 92 | |
Megan TOMLINSON | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 11 | 1:33.153 | 6.139 |
| 15 | 72 | |
Riley PEGRAM | Pegram Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR | 12 | 1:34.133 | 7.119 |