Files is fastest in Qualifying, but Vernay has the pole

Josh Files and his Hell Energy Racing Honda Civic set the fastest lap in Qualifying at Assen’s TT Circuit, however it will be the Leopard Lukoil Team’s Audi RS3 LMS of Jean-Karl Vernay to start from pole position in this afternoon’s Race 1. In fact, the Briton will be demoted to fourth due to a penalty that was the consequence of an incident occurred during the previous event at the Hungaroring.
Maxime Potty qualified his Comtoyou Racing’s Volkswagen Golf GTI in third position and will start from the second spot, followed by the Target Competition Hyundai i30 N of Kris Richard, Files’ teammate Attila Tassi and Julien Briché’s JSB Compétition Peugeot 308.
Local boy Danny Kroes ranked tenth at the wheel of his PCR Sport Cupra and won pole position on the reverse grid for tomorrow’s Race 2; he will have the Autodis Racing-THX Honda of Stefano Comini alongside.
Track limit infringements had a crucial impact on the Qualifying results, as many drivers had their fastest laps disallowed. Among them Dániel Nagy who dropped from fourth to eight and the title duellists, Mikel Azcona and Dušan Borković, who were relegated in 12^th and 11^th places respectively.
To add insult to injury, Borković too will be demoted by three positions on the grid for Race 1, as he was given the same penalty as Files.
The first race will start at 14:50 (live streaming at www.tcr-series.com and www.tcr-series.tv). 

Q1 – Vernay beats Tassi by two tenths
With only four minutes left on the clock, Tassi was the first driver to complete a lap in less than 1:45, posting a provisional fastest time of 1:44.925. However, seconds later Vernay improved for good to 1:44.713.
Soon afterwards, Potty set the third fastest lap of 1:45.124, demoting Azcona to fourth by only one thousandth of a second.
Richard (1:45.154), Borković (1:45.234), Kroes (1:45.281), Comini (1:45.317), Files (1:45.388) and Stian Paulsen (1:45.590) rounded off the top ten.
Nagy (1:45.686) and Briché (1:45.768) grabbed the two final places for Q2 in the dying seconds, kicking Loris Cencetti and Reece Barr off.
Proceedings were disrupted by the red flag after four minutes, when Victor Davidovski’s Honda crashed at T8.

Q2 – Files is just a bit faster than Vernay
Files beat Vernay by less than one tenth in the fight for the pole position, as both drivers set their fastest times on their first attempt. Vernay clocked a provisional fastest lap of 1:44.607 that was immediately beaten by Files’ 1:44.522.
Potty confirmed the third position achieved in Q1 with a lap of 1:45.189, ahead of Richard (1:45.330), Tassi (1:45.351) and Briché (1:45.575).
Nagy clocked the fourth fastest lap of 1:45.282, but had it disallowed due to a track limit infringement. The same fate relegated Borković and Azcona in 11^th and 12^th positions respectively.