Callejas grabs a stunning maiden TCR Europe pole position

Brutal Fish Racing’s Spanish teenager Isidro Callejas will start TCR Europe Race 1 at the Nürburgring from pole position. An all-Honda front row for the opening race will see the PSS Racing Civic car of Franco Girolami start alongside Callejas’, with the current championship leader Mikel Azcona starting from fifth place on the grid.
In the first stage of Qualifying, it was Azcona who set the early pace; the 2018 TCR Europe champion delivering a benchmark of 2:08.573 on his first quick lap, with Klim Gavrilov second (2:09.444) and Felice Jelmini third (2:10.390). The next lap, however, saw Nicolas Baert go P2 with a time of 2:08.936 before a string of drivers took their turn to go P1 – Niels Langeveld (2:08.527), Teddy Clairet (2:08.460), Dušan Borkovič (2:08.438) and Tom Coronel (2:08.221). Borkovič then improved his time on the next lap with a 2:08.007 topping the timesheet again ahead of his Comtoyou teammate Coronel.
With around five minutes of Q1 remaining, Azcona went P3 with a 2:08.114, but a furious few laps saw Teddy Clairet (2:07.785), Borkovič (2:07.526) and finally Langeveld (2:07.172) all going fastest, with Coronel ending Q1 in second place, Azcona fourth and Girolami fifth. The twelve drivers who went through to Q2 were Langeveld, Coronel, Borkovič, Azcona, Girolami, Gavrilov, Viktor Davidovski, Teddy Clairet, Callejas, Baert, Jack Young and Jáchym Galáš. 
The ten-minute Q2 was going to deliver drama. The first two drivers in the standings, Azcona and Girolami, had each been fastest in yesterday’s two Free Practice sessions and so all eyes were on the pair. It was Gavrilov the first to set a competitive time of 2:07.985. Teddy Clairet (2:07.210), Girolami (2:06.788), Callejas (2:07.174), Azcona (2:07.644) and Coronel (2:07.605) all went quicker than the Russian, with Girolami looking as though he would end the session in P1. With around a minute remaining, however, Callejas went faster with a lap time of 2:06.751 to grab his first-ever TCR Europe pole position and Niels Langeveld recorded a 2:06.836 to take P3 away from Clairet. Those three drivers were within just 0.085 of each other, with the CUPRA of Azcona in P5 behind Clairet’s Peugeot. 
Thanks to the reversed grid, it will also be a Brutal Fish Racing/PSS Racing all-Honda front row for tomorrow’s Race 2, with Jack Young and Viktor Davidovki having finished Q2 in tenth and ninth positions respectively. 
The first race will be streamed live today at www.tcr-series.com; 14:50 local time (CEST).

Nürburgring - Qualifying
2:06.761 Isidro Callejas (Brutal Fish Racing Team, Honda Civic Type R Fk7)
2:06.788 Franco Girolami (PSS Racing Team, Honda Civic Type R Fk7)
2:06.836 Niels Langeveld (Sébastien Loeb Racing, Hyundai Elantra N)
2:07.210 Teddy Clairet (Team Clairet Sport, Peugeot 308)
2:07.336 Mikel Azcona (Volcano Motorsport, CUPRA Leon Competición)

Championship points
1. M. Azcona 236 pts; 2. F. Girolami 209; 3. M. Bennani 183

Picture: TCR Europe