Esteban Guerrieri claimed a record-breaking pole position at the Nurburgring to increase his lead in the WTCR – FIA World Touring Car Cup.
The ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport driver was first on-track in a wet qualifying session and immediately set a pace nobody could match with his opening gambit.
With several incidents creating a number of Code 60 ‘slow zones’, and the rain then intensifying, nobody was able to deny the Argentinian his second pole of the season and the third for the Honda Civic Type R TCR.
At 6.032 seconds, Esteban’s margin over second place was the largest in WTCR history, and at 10m30.955s, it also took longer than any other pole position since the series began. It secured his status as the WTCR’s best-performing driver in qualifying too.
He will start third in Race Three and eighth on Race Two’s partially-reversed grid after another strong performance in a damp, but drying, evening qualifying, which was affected by a Code 60 in the final sector when the track was at its best in the final minute.
Team-mate Nestor Girolami followed Esteban’s example of heading out early for Q1 and was rewarded with third on the grid.
Having set the fastest first-sector time of Q2, he looked set to repeat the performance. Unfortunately, he was called into the pits by race officials for exceeding noise limits and was unable to complete his lap. He starts Race Two and Three from 24th place.
KCMG’s Attila Tassi scored a fantastic result in Q2 with a career-best eighth place on the grid; a result that should have given him third on Race Two’s partially-reversed grid. Unfortunately, a 10-place penalty for speeding in the Code 60 zone drops him to 13th.
Having never driven on the 25.1km Nordschleife before morning practice, the Hungarian was one of the star performers and made the most of his Civic Type R TCR’s excellent handling characteristics.
Team-mate Tiago Monteiro was also on-course for a top-10 result, but lost time as he exited the Code 60 ‘slow zone’ with a technical issue. He still scored his best qualifying result since the Marrakech season-opener with 14th.
Tiago and Attila start Race One from 19th and 20th positions.
Race One takes place on Friday evening with two further races held on Saturday.