After the very close races last Sunday at Monza, the competitors of the TCR International Series put in another thrilling show during today’s Qualifying at the Salzburgring.
In a breathtaking session, Kevin Gleason won his second pole position of the season after Sepang and his WestCoast Racing Gianni Morbidelli completed an all-Honda front row. Gleason and Morbidelli were the last competitors to cross the line under the chequered flag, when it seemed that Stefano Comini had secured the pole.
It was a bit of a shock for the Swiss driver and the Target Competition crew, but also for most of the insiders, especially after the SEAT cars had dominated the second Free Practice and Q1.
In Q2 the gaps were so small that before the last lap of the Honda duo the first four positions (Comini, Gleason, Oriola and Morbidelli) were covered by only 78 thousandths of a second. Eventually, less than five tenths separated the ninth – Michel Nykjær – from pole position.
Sunday’s races will go green at 12.35 and 14.05 local time, with a distance of 15 laps each.
Qualifying 1: Belicchi posts the fastest lap
Target Competiion’s team-mates Andrea Belicchi and Stefano Comini posted the fastest lap in the first part of the Qualifying with times of 1:27.281 and 1:27.400 set halfway through the session.
Liqui Moly Team Engstler’s Mikhail Grachev was third fastest (1:27.674), improving in the final moments and demoting Jordi Gené (1:27.675) and Lorenzo Veglia (1:27.859) to fourth and fifth. Just like in the second Free Practice, the SEAT León cars filled the first nine spots of the classification.
Gianni Morbidelli was the best of the Honda drivers in tenth (1:28.170) ahead of his team-mates Kevin Gleason and Igor Skuz; Gleason had a brief spell on the second place, but his best lap of 1:27.308 was disallowed because he had posted it while the yellow flag was waved after Szolt Szabó went out at the Nochstein-Kehre.
Both the Campos Racing Opel Astra cars missed the cut. Fernando Monje came out and in for the whole session trying to solve some technical issues and did not post a valid time. His team-mate Markus Östreich went off at the Östschleife on his last attempt to improve and remained 1.3 seconds slower that his time in the Free Practice.
The following drivers advanced to Q2: Belicchi, Comini, Grachev, Gené, Veglia, Schouten, Nykjær, Oriola, Afanasyev, Morbidelli, Gleason and Skuz.
Qualifying 2: Successful last gasp attempt for Honda duo
The Honda Civic cars of Kevin Gleason and Gianni Morbidelli shattered Stefano Comini’s dream of pole position by setting the two fastest times on a last gasp attempt.
Gleason was faster (1:26.915) and won his second pole of the season, beating Morbidelli by 91 thousandths of a second.
Igor Szuk provided the icing on the cake for WestCoast Racing, posting the tenth fastest lap that will give him pole position on the reversed grid for Race 2.
