Santiago Urrutia led a Cyan Racing top three in qualifying for the opening FIA TCR World Tour and TCR China race at Zhouzhou in China, beating Thed Björk and Yann Ehrlacher to the top time.
Urrutia, who had been quickest in both of Friday’s practice sessions, ensured he kept his Lynk & Co at the top by lapping the circuit in Hunan Province quickest in 1 minute 44.684 seconds, as dry conditions returned to the track following rain on Friday afternoon.
It was the Uruguayan racer’s third pole in the series, giving the Lynk & Co manufacturer a coveted pole on home soil. Urrutia also topped the earlier part of qualifying, where he edged out team-mate Ma Qing Hua.
“Everything is looking good,” said Urrutia. “Especially here because it is the home race for the team, and everyone wants to get a good result.
“Pole position is done now so I will help my teammates in the races who are fighting for the title… but so far so good and I am very happy.”
It was Björk who was his closest challenger in Q2, the Swede qualifying in second and also moving up to second in the drivers’ standings as a result, ahead of Ehrlacher in third, a scant 0.016 seconds further back.
BRC Racing’s Mikel Azcona put in his best effort of the weekend so far to qualify his Hyundai in fourth, ahead of team-mate Norbert Michelisz in fifth.
GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri was the leading Honda in sixth, over half a second off the pace.
A trio of TCR China regulars made it through to Q2 at the expense of the TCR World Tour regulars. The quickest of these was title contender Martin Xie, who put his MacPro Racing Honda in an impressive seventh, ahead of the Cyan Racing Lynk & Co of Ma Qing Hua in eighth.
GOAT Racing’s Marco Butti and BRC’s Néstor Girolami completed the top ten, the latter thus claiming the reverse-grid pole position for Sunday’s second race.
Also making it into Q2 were TCR China regulars David Zhu and Jason Zhang, although the Teamwork Motorsport drivers were over a second off the pace in 11th and 12th respectively.
The progression of local racers meant three World Tour drivers missed out on Q2, with Volcano Motorsport’s John Filippi in 13th, GOAT Racing’s Dušan Borković in 14th and series returnee in Rob Huff in 15th in the second Volcano Audi.
Race one is scheduled to get underway at 14:00 local time (07:00 BST, 08:00 CEST).
Q2 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 112 |  |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 4 | 1:44.684 | – |
| 2 | 111 |  |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 4 | 1:44.835 | 0.151 |
| 3 | 168 |  |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 4 | 1:44.851 | 0.167 |
| 4 | 196 |  |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 3 | 1:45.111 | 0.427 |
| 5 | 105 |  |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 4 | 1:45.120 | 0.436 |
| 6 | 186 |  |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 1:45.196 | 0.512 |
| 7 | 55 |  |
Martin XIE Xin Zhe | MacPro Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 1:45.583 | 0.899 |
| 8 | 155 | |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 4 | 1:45.592 | 0.908 |
| 9 | 199 |  |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 4 | 1:45.696 | 1.012 |
| 10 | 129 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 3 | 1:45.751 | 1.067 |
| 11 | 9 | |
David ZHU Dai Wei | Lynk & Co Teamwork Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 3 | 1:45.912 | 1.228 |
| 12 | 36 | |
Jason ZHANG Zhi Qiang | Lynk & Co Teamwork Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 4 | 1:46.210 | 1.526 |
Q1 results
| POS | NO | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP |
| 1 | 112 | |
Santiago URRUTIA | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 8 | 1:44.580 | – |
| 2 | 155 | |
MA Qing Hua | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 5 | 1:44.770 | 0.190 |
| 3 | 196 | |
Mikel AZCONA | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:45.021 | 0.441 |
| 4 | 129 | |
Néstor GIROLAMI | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:45.166 | 0.586 |
| 5 | 111 | |
Thed BJÖRK | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 8 | 1:45.334 | 0.754 |
| 6 | 168 | |
Yann EHRLACHER | Lynk & Co Cyan Racing | Lynk & Co 03 FL TCR | 7 | 1:45.350 | 0.770 |
| 7 | 186 | |
Esteban GUERRIERI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 1:45.417 | 0.837 |
| 8 | 9 | |
David ZHU Dai Wei | Lynk & Co Teamwork Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 7 | 1:45.561 | 0.981 |
| 9 | 199 | |
Marco BUTTI | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:45.567 | 0.987 |
| 10 | 55 | |
Martin XIE Xin Zhe | MacPro Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 1:45.576 | 0.996 |
| 11 | 105 | |
Norbert MICHELISZ | BRC Hyundai N Squadra Corse | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:45.667 | 1.087 |
| 12 | 36 | |
Jason ZHANG Zhi Qiang | Lynk & Co Teamwork Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 8 | 1:45.693 | 1.113 |
| 13 | 127 | |
John FILIPPI | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 1:45.726 | 1.146 |
| 14 | 62 |  |
Dušan BORKOVIĆ | GOAT Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 9 | 1:45.758 | 1.178 |
| 15 | 179 |  |
Rob HUFF | Volcano Motorsport | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 1:45.814 | 1.234 |
| 16 | 1 | |
Martin CAO Hongwei | Hyundai N | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:46.267 | 1.687 |
| 17 | 51 | |
WU Yifan | 326 Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 1:46.383 | 1.803 |
| 18 | 2 | |
Rainey HE Xiaole | Hyundai N | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:46.420 | 1.840 |
| 19 | 28 |  |
LO Sze Ho | Evolve Racing | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 9 | 1:46.608 | 2.028 |
| 20 | 3 | |
Andy YAN Cheuk Wai | Hyundai N | Hyundai Elantra N TCR | 8 | 1:46.727 | 2.147 |
| 21 | 12 | |
Sunny WONG Yat Shing | Lynk & Co Teamwork Motorsport | Lynk & Co 03 TCR | 8 | 1:46.777 | 2.197 |
| 22 | 37 | |
ZHOU Yun Jie | Spark Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 1:46.911 | 2.331 |
| 23 | 27 | |
CHAN Chun Leung | Norris Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 9 | 1:46.947 | 2.367 |
| 24 | 52 | |
LAI Jing Wen | 326 Racing Team | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 9 | 1:47.072 | 2.492 |
| 25 | 7 | |
David DENG Bao Wei | MacPro Racing Team | Honda Civic Type-R FL5 TCR | 8 | 1:47.124 | 2.544 |
| 26 | 87 | |
MAN Siu Ming | Evolve Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 6 | 1:47.331 | 2.751 |
| 27 | 95 | |
HU Heng | GYT Racing | Audi RS3 LMS TCR II | 4 | 1:48.450 | 3.870 |
| 28 | 26 | |
Tony CHAN Chi Wai | Norris Racing | Honda Civic Type-R FK7 TCR | 9 | 1:48.451 | 3.871 |